I Am Not Yours
by Viva La Viva - Jess Jolie
Summary: Post S4E9. Zane is on a search for the truth while trying to fight his growing feelings for Jo. Jo is finding the lines between the Zane she loved and the new Zane becoming more & more blurred while it seems all her friends are trying to play match-maker.
1. Chapter 1

_Hey :) This is my response to my lack of Eureka and Jo/Zane over the last few months. I love Jo and Zane and I miss them being together even though things are looking up after 'Ill be seeing you' but this is to calm my withdrawal! This is therefore set after 'Ill be seeing you' and has spoilers for all of season four so far. The story will have more smut later on. The story is Jo/Zane centric but will include everyone else and is Zoe friendly. The story is named after the poem 'I am Not Yours' by Sara Teasdale. _

_This is my first story so I have no idea if it's any good. As I'm just starting out as a writer I would love to hear what you think. I am also looking for a beta reader if any one is interested as I am rubbish at grammar and spotting spelling mistakes etc. If you're interested I will be eternally grateful for your help! :) _

_I don't own any of the characters as much as I wish I did. So I'll leave you to read and I really hope you enjoy the story. _

**Chapter One**

Josefina Lupo didn't do stupid things. That had always been Jack Carter's job.

Of course that had been before they'd separated and their partnership dissolved due to time travelling and alternate realities, before Jo had ended up sat alone in her office in a expensive suit the people around her too sacred of her position and influence to even look her directly in the eye let alone start a bit of banter. Apart from professional visits the only person whom regularly frequented her office at GD was Fargo though Jo was weary of spending too much time with him as she couldn't help but see the slight sparkle of admiration and desire in his eyes when the two of them spent time together. Carter and Allison had each other, as did Henry and Grace. Fargo was the only one left to talk too without the element of fear at giving away some clue to their time travelling and she was lonely.

Anyway she had never been the stupid one even though she wasn't a super genius with more PHD's than one could shake a stick out sticking out from under her cap. Carter was always the one when faced with an ever growing amount of disasters who'd make a suggestion that they'd all roll their eyes at and ignore. She admired him more than anyone else, not that she'd ever tell him that, but that didn't stop him from being a prize idiot sometimes. But here she was, Jo Lupo, doing the most stupid thing she could do. Not only was what she'd done been stupid, it had also been dangerous as the last thing any of them wanted was for anyone, let alone a brilliant physicist, discovering the truth they were so ardently protecting.

Even though the DOD could be swooping down on them at any minuet and lock them all away for tests, she couldn't help but think about Zane and the kiss that she should never have let herself fall into. Stepping out of the shower while wrapping a white towel around her body she stared at her face in the mirror, dark circles underneath her eyes and wet hair resting on bare tan shoulders, and lifted a fingertip softly to her lips. If she were a more sentimental woman she could almost fancy being able to still feel his lips on hers. It had been so easy to let herself fall into his embrace and his kiss, her head was messed up enough from her hallucination of her Zane and all the things he'd been saying to her, and it was enough to be able to pretend that the jump to the past had never happened and she was still in her time, with her Zane.

But that was the most stupid thing she'd done so far, this Zane didn't love her he was just using her. Zane was brilliant and Jo knew he would guess that there was something going on, and by giving him back the ring she'd confirmed every single one of his suspicions. Jo Lupo had been his weak link in the chain, the chink to be used and exposed to allow him to get to the truth and any feelings he awoke in her was nothing more than collateral damage. He wasn't her Zane and she'd been amazingly stupid to ever begin to think that he could be. He didn't want anything from her but to be part of the loop, to know what was going on. He had Zoe now, and he didn't want anything from Jo or at least what she wanted from him. In his arms she'd felt safe and protected for the first time in months and if she was honest with herself all she wanted was to be back in them, even if that made her one of the women Jo would had been shot in the head for echoing similar sentiments in the past. But she had to accpet that her Zane was gone.

Jo Lupo had been an idiot and it had to stop. Now.

Jo moved into the living room after quickly pulling on a dark suit and white shirt and stumped her foot into one of the cardboard boxes that she'd dropped on the floor. She cursed though it hadn't really hurt just because she wanted to curse someone who wasn't Zane, herself or Zoe. When she'd been at school, before the accident, she'd been used to being in pain somewhere or other. You couldn't spend several hours a day dancing without aching. And last on at West Point her instructors had sometimes made them run miles until Jo had been physically sick. She knew pain however even as she'd done sit-up's till she'd broken down in tears it was nothing compared to loosing the man you loved and being forced to see him everyday completely oblivious of what they'd had.

"Good to see you're started unpacking" a voice startled her and she turned to see Allison moving into the rather unsorted mass of boxes that now made up her living room. Allison had helped her move the previous week and still had the spare key Jo had lent her and Carter.

"Well after spending a week catching radio-active carrier pigeons with Carter I haven't really had the time" she replied causing Allison to laugh. Jo didn't understand why the world needed radio-active carrier pigeons but apparently they did and it hadn't been long since the bright spark who'd created them had accidentally let them loose. Jo hadn't been able to stop herself considering the whole thing a massive waste of time, and added to yet more feelings of uselessness she'd been experiencing recently.

"Well I'm sure Dc James learnt his lesson Jo" Allison told her with a small smile as she moved boxes around to clear some space on the small cream sofa she had in her living room "Hows the new place working out for you?" Allison asked her.

Jo's house was still a bomb site but she knew she couldn't live in a house watching Zoe and Zane together so she'd asked Allison for her help in finding a new home. It was cramped and needed some work but it was also Zane free and therefore perfect and exactly what Jo was looking for. It also didn't berate her for staying up to late to watch trash TV and eat unhealthy food as she had taken to recently as SARAH did.

"Well, once I get round to unpacking and Henry paints over some of the worst damp patches, it'll be lovely" Jo replied looking around the house she would soon start to call home. Henry and Carter had both volunteered to help with her decorating and even Fargo had volunteered to add some touches to the house. Though she was still weary of letting Fargo into her personal space.

"Well I was just wondering whether you want to come round for food tonight? I promise I won't let Jack cook this time" Allison promised and Jo smiled though she started to shake her head while remembering the burnt offerings Jack had prepared at Jenna's christening a few weeks before

"I'd love too" she replied and Allison nodded, grabbing her coat and telling Jo that she'd leave her to finish getting ready in peace and see her at work. Jo waved her off and heading over to the bedroom to finish drying her hair before the damp patches on her shoulders got any worse. As she ran a brush through her long hair her eyes went to rest on the picture on the desk which she propped up against the lamp sat there.

Jo wasn't a sentimental person and she kept her photos, and her past, close to her heart. But she'd been feeling down and she couldn't help but pine for when she'd been nothing more than a school kid with aching legs and dreams of making it big in the world of ballet. Before the accident had changed everything, and changed her. The photo was old and well thumbed, creased in one corner while another was slightly torn. It was taken outside, snow covering the branches of the trees behind them. There were five of them sat on a low branch in a row.

Jo was fifteen and sat in the middle, her long hair was curly and loose around her shoulders with a white woollen hat shoved down across her forehead. On her left sat her two oldest brothers Toby and Will both in thick coats like her own, hats and gloves grinning brightly to the camera. Like Jo, and her other brother Alfie, they had dark hair, skin and eyes just like their mother. Alfie was sat on her right though separated from Jo by a smiling blonde girl who had an arm around Jo's shoulders. Blue eyed and petite Sara Richardson had been Jo's best friend since middle school and had shared her dreams of making it as a dancer. She was now Sara Lupo, being both Jo's best friend and sister-in-law after marrying Alfie, just a few tender years after this photo had been taken.

Her mother had taken the photo and it made a lump grow in her throat. Her past was painful but even so it soothed the pain Zane caused in her chest. Jo felt bad about lying to Carter about her mother but she hadn't wanted to go into it, she'd rather everyone thought she'd been rendered motherless at an early age. Eureka had a habit of eating away at all her time till years had gone by before she'd flown out to see her family.

Outside the wind was warm on her face and she wrapped her hands in the material of her pockets as she began walking into town towards the location of Cafe Diem. She waved back and returned the morning greetings of the people she passed on her way though she was more interested in getting her morning coffee before heading over to GD.

However fate it seemed had other ideas and it seemed before she'd even stepped completely through the door she was faced with Zane who seemingly both appeared out of nowhere and been waiting and watching for her arrival. Jo groaned and tried to side-step him but he wasn't having any of it and quickly blocked her feeble attempt at an escape.

His eyes were serious as he turned to look at her "Jo, we need to talk"

XOX

How the hell had he ended up here?

Zane was sat alone on the bed on the apartment that Fargo had arranged for him all those years ago he'd first moved to Eureka and Carter had finally escorted him to when he'd proven he could be trusted. He hadn't bothered moving or changing the lay-out particularly, he didn't need much and until he needed more space there was no point moving. Especially as when he'd first arrived he'd spent more time in the Eureka jail cell as Jo Lupo did everything in her power to pin something on him and get him out of her town. She hadn't trusted him and the more he'd tried to charm her, the more she'd hated him and mistrusted him. He'd always thought that the day he was escorted out of town in handcuffs would be the first day she finally rested in her pursuit of bringing him to justice, she'd made no secret of the fact that she felt he'd escaped justice when Fargo had brought him to Eureka.

Zoe's coat was still draped over the back of the office chair set up by the make-shift desk in the corner. He'd have to give it back at some point but he wasn't looking forward to it, Zoe didn't take well to being wronged or not getting what she wanted. But there was no way he'd been able to give her what she'd wanted from him, not last night and probably not ever. But Zoe wasn't the type that he could see giving up that easily even if she took a while to stop being annoyed at him for last night.

"Come on, lets go and get some food" she told him happily the night before, grabbing her coat from the back of her dining room chairs and tugging him to his feet. Zoe had all but invited herself round again though he hadn't objected particularly. He knew Carter didn't like it but what could he do, Zoe was 19 now and if she wanted to go on a date there was no way she would let her father stop her.

Inside Cafe Diem the atmosphere was hot and buzzing and it seemed like half the town had appeared that night. Vincent had led them to their usual table and he quickly scanned the room for Jo but she was absent as usual. The last time he'd seen her she been clutching a large net looking like she wanted to do something painful to the scared looking scientist stood in front of her with it as Carter struggled next to her with a large cage full of birds. He'd laughed and she'd caught his eye. Her expression was cold. He hadn't spoken to her in just over a week and she seemed now a master at avoiding being alone, and most of the time any social situation, with him.

"Allison asked me to invite you to her dinner party tomorrow. Some boring grown up thing. I won't be there" Zoe told him and Zane dragged his eyes back to her. She looked pretty as usual but he couldn't fix his attention completely on her for some reason. Zoe was rather young and he'd never had any attention of turning the thing they had into anything serious. But even so she made him laugh and he enjoyed spending time with her, otherwise he wouldn't have carried on with this even if it had been at first just to annoy Carter, another arm of the law who felt he'd undeservedly escaped justice.

"Tell her I'll be there" he told her but he could tell that she was upset as she obviously thought he wouldn't go without her. He knew that Jo would be most likely there and at that thought he felt guilt settle in his stomach. He reached out to take her hand and smiled at her "But you can come over on Saturday and watch some movies if you want?" he asked her and a smile broke out on her face.

"I'll bring popcorn" she told him happily and quickly turned around as Vincent appeared to take their orders "How's work?" she asked him and he briefly explained the new missile defence system he was working on. Zane always had a good time with Zoe but for the rest of the evening he found that he couldn't relax completely with her as usual. He was on edge and was glad when Zoe finally decided that she wanted to go home.

"Want me to walk you?" he asked her helping her put her coat on as they stepped out of the door but she shook her head turning around and kissing him lightly on the cheek.

"I was thinking we could maybe watch a film now?" she asked him and Zane found that he couldn't say no perhaps because of her bright blue eyes or the eager expression on her face that he couldn't quite ignore. So he nodded and she slipped her arm through his as he walked her back towards his apartment.

Inside he took her coat from her and threw it over the back of one of the dining room chairs and gestured to the living room "Do you want to choose a movie?" he asked and she shook her head perching on the side of the table and studying his face.

"No Zane, I wanted to talk to you. You've been distracted all night and to be honest most of this week. You know you can tell me what's going on you know? That's what I'm here for" she told him with a understanding smile and he bit back the urge to laugh.

What would Zoe do if he told her that the reason he was so distracted was Jo Lupo. That for some reason he couldn't fathom she'd had his Grandmother's ring and that since he'd kissed her she was all he could think about. The feel of her lips, the taste of her mouth and the way she slotted into his arms like she'd always belonged there. What would Zoe do if he told her about the dreams that haunted his sleeping moments, not even sleep could prove an escape from Jo. Ever since that kiss he couldn't get her out of his mind and the lie she told him that they were nothing. She was lying and he wanted more than anything to know why and the truth.

But he couldn't tell Zoe that. He couldn't hurt her, she was too good of a kid "Look Zoe works just been a bit crazy, I'm really sorry for being distracted" he told her with a smile but he knew from her expression that she knew he wasn't exactly telling the truth.

"Zane how are we supposed to be together if you won't tell me the truth?" she asked him and he felt the colour drain from his face. He should have known that Zoe was far more interested in this than him. It was written over every smile, every look but he'd been so wrapped up in Jo Lupo recently that he hadn't noticed.

"Look Zoe, I'm just stressed with work and everything, can we just watch a movie and relax?" he asked her eager to get away from any subject matter that strayed onto the territory of Jo. The last thing that he wanted was for Carter to grind his face into the dirt for hurting his little girl. And as much as he was torn up about his kiss with Jo the last thing he wanted to do was hurt Zoe whom he cared about.

"Maybe I have a better idea" she told him with a wicked smile and before he could move she'd stepped onto her tip toes and kissed him square on the lips. Zane couldn't think to react for a moment but perhaps from force of habit, he'd been with a lot of girls after all another trait that Jo had hated him for, he wrapped an arm around her and kissed her back. Only it wasn't right, didn't feel right. Zoe was kissing him but all he could do was compare it to his kiss with Jo. Zoe even felt awkward in his arms, she was tiny, not all like the previous week in the Sheriff's office.

He gently pulled away from her and he could see confusion on her face "Come on Zoe I'll take you home, I don't want you're dad finding an excuse to kill me for keeping you out too late" he told her and she frowned at him.

"I'm sorry Zane, did I move too fast?" she asked him and the concern in her voice and the worried tremble of her lip made the ball of guilt in his chest tightened exponentially. He took her into his arms and kissed the top of her head, feeling her hands clutch at his arms and her cheek press against his chest. He hated that he'd upset her and he wanted to make it better.

"Zoe, you haven't done anything wrong. I just don't want to rush things. Come on, I'll take you home" he explained to her and she nodded pulling away from him and looking him square in the face.

"Zane, I really like you. I just want to spend time with you. I don't know why but it's almost like you're pushing me away. Please stop it, I just want you to trust me and let me in. I want to be your girlfriend Zane" she told him and he'd had no idea what to say so merely grabbed his own coat and opened the door for her. He should have told her, told her that he couldn't have a relationship with anyone because he'd just hurt them. Especially with someone he cared about like he cared about Zoe. And that he couldn't have a relationship with anyone until he got Jo and that kiss out of his mind and got to the bottom of things so he and Jo could hate each other again, and he could relax with Zoe and everything could go back to normal.

After he'd dropped Zoe off and got back home Zane had gone to sit on his bed and hadn't moved since. Why hadn't he been able to kiss Zoe or even talk to her? She was lovely and he cared about her, and more importantly she cared about him. Yes she was young but she was nineteen now, the people of Eureka couldn't see past the fifteen year old who driven into their town in the back of a police car and to the young woman she'd become. He just didn't know why he couldn't get Jo out of his head. Sure Jo was hot but she'd been a bitch to him from day one, he spent a year trying to get her to go out with him and the only way to get over that level of rejection was to return the distaste she had for him.

But things had changed between them, that kiss was seared into his mind, and he had to get some answers. And Jo Lupo was the only one who could give him the answers that he was seeking. And even on fear of death by Carter, he grabbed his own jacket, sprayed on some aftershave and went in search of the woman who could explain why he was loosing his mind.

XOX

"Look Zane now isn't really a good time" she told him but he grabbed her arm and pulled her closer to him. So close that she could smell the aftershave, the same smell she used to love waking up to and finding on her pillows on nights he'd had to work late. Now the smell made her stomach turn.

"No, Jo. We have to talk. You've been avoiding me for a week now and you can't keep this up forever. I won't let you" he told her and all but pulled her over to the side and away from the door, blocking any chances of escape with her broad frame. Jo schooled her expression into one of indifference eager not to let her guard down around him any more. It was too dangerous as much as being this close to him just made her want to collapse and bury her head in his chest.

"What exactly do you want from me?" she asked him with a slight raise of her eyebrow looking around for someone to save her from her current predicament. But not even Carter was there to save her. He sent her a bemused look and raise his eyebrows back at her.

"I think that would be obvious. I want to know why you had my grandmother's ring" he asked her and she looked away from him scared that her eyes would give away the truth. He gently turned her face to meet his but though his expression was curious and frustrated it was also soft and confused.

"Look Zane, there is nothing between us. You have the ring back, can we just leave it?" she asked him and she hated the fact that she sounded so desperate. She was supposed to tough as nails Jo Lupo yet she was reduced to a quivering mess by this man, it wasn't fair.

"I just happened to ring up my grandmother and know for a fact that you haven't given me this ring back, she never gave it me in the first place, and you can't kiss someone like that and expect them to go away" he told her and she inwardly groaned. He knew, and even if he didn't know yet he would do soon. He was too smart not to figure out what had happened.

"You kissed me I think you'll find and I've told you once, there is nothing between us. There never will be and never was. So just leave it Zane" she bit back and tried to get away from him again but he was quick fast holding her in place. Though to everyone else it looked as if they were just talking she knew he was blocking her into a corner with his mass.

"I just don't understand. I asked you out, you wanted nothing to do with me. Then over night you went from staring at me with hatred to looking at me with this sadness I can't describe. And then you started saying these things and gave me back my grandmother's ring. Jo, I'm confused as hell and I'm not letting you go till you explain to me what the hell is going on" he told her firmly and she had no idea how she was going to get herself out of this one. Her Zane had always known when she'd been trying to brush him off and he'd never let her. Why would this Zane be any different?

"Regardless of whatever went on in the past I just want you to leave me alone. You have a girlfriend and I doubt that she'd been very happy that you were accosting another woman like this" she told him coolly and he finally backed off a bit from her and she could see she picked at a sore spot. Jo couldn't help but wonder what had happened between Zoe and Zane but it wasn't her place to ask.

"Jo, I'm not letting this go. I spent a year trying to win you over and you acted like I was a smear of crap on your shoes. You can't blame me for not exactly liking you when you hated me, but you're different. This thing between us, whatever it is, is different. I'm not just going to ignore what's happening, I'm getting to the bottom of it whether or not you're help me. And first of you can tell me how the hell you have my grandmother's ring" he told her and she felt her stomach tighten knowing that she'd have to tell the others that Zane was going after their secret.

The door opened and he looked over to see who had entered. Jo took the opportunity to slip away and make for the door her head bowed to the ground. She wanted nothing more than to get to her house, get her car and escape to the relative safety of GD and Fargo and his puppy-dog admiration. She felt a hand wrap around her arm and spin her around just as she reached the haven of her front door.

"Jo can you please stop running away from me" Zane looked unamused as he stared directly into his eyes. The two of them were almost nose to nose and Jo knew she couldn't keep up her façade of indifference when they were like this "I just want you to tell me what's going on" he asked her and his eyes and voice were both soft and sad and that was just about enough to make Jo shatter.

"Please just go" she all but begged but her voice lacked conviction and quickly faded away. His eyes bore into hers and she knew what was going to happen. He would kiss her and she would kiss him back because she missed him so much it physically hurt. He bent his head towards her and she closed her eyes expectantly but then she opened them with a snap. She couldn't do this, it would only hurt more like rubbing salt into an open wound. Letting him kiss her wouldn't make him her Zane, it would just make her want a man she couldn't have more.

She shoved her hands on his chest and pushed him away forcefully. He looked at her with an expression akin to as if she'd tasered him in the balls and she felt her chest constrict.

"Jo..." he started and she shoved him backwards a little more firmly knowing that the last thing she wanted him to see was for her crying for another version of himself.

She gathered her composure and fixed him with a deathly stare hoping she looked stronger than she felt not so much as if she were made of rapidly crumbling sand "Zane if you don't go I will taser you in the crotch" she told him calmly even though she felt anything but calm. She needed to be away from him before she broke and told him everything.

"I'll be going then 'cause I know hwo much you like that damn thing but this isn't the end of this Jo, I want answers and I will get them" he told and she see the determination settle in his eyes. She'd had to get to Allison's early and tell them what was happening. But if she did that she'd have to tell them about the ring, and the kiss, and she wasn't sure if she could do that.

As he turned his back on her she quickly stepped into her house and locked the door nor caring that she'd be late. She sank to the floor and wrapped her hands around her knees. Just because she loved Zane Donovan once upon a time he still didn't get to see her collapse to the floor and cry.


	2. Chapter 2

_Hey :) So this is chapter two. I hope you enjoy it and thank you very much for reading. I am still looking for a beta if anyone knows anyone who could help. _

_Thank you very much to Mellimon and Clarinetto14 for reviewing. Therefore this chapter is for you and Cosmicwave for favouriting. But please do tell me what you think, this is my first attempt at a fanfic and would love to hear how I'm doing. _

_Again thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy :) I have the next chapter written so hope to update in a couple of days time. _

**Chapter Two**

Zane was still fuming as he made his way into Cafe Diem for lunch later that day. He was mad at Jo for refusing to even talk to him. He was sure he hadn't been imagining it, she'd wanted to kiss him just as much as he'd wanted to kiss her and it drove him mad because for the last few years the last thing he'd wanted to do was kiss Jo. Just as she'd made it clear that she would stick pins in her eyes than even spend time alone with him.

"You look like you need a drink" A voice told him and he turned to see Grace Deacon smiling at him and sitting down next to him "Bad day huh?" Grace asked him and he nodded. She smiled up at Vincent and went about ordering a drink and Zane studied her. Just like Jo, Grace had been different lately. Whatever was going on seemed to involve Grace and Henry as well.

They had gone from being madly in love, to Henry being removed and weary around Grace, to being in love again. And it hadn't passed his notice that in recent weeks the secret and hushed meeting between Carter, Doctor Blake, Jo, Fargo and Henry had grown to include Grace. Perhaps she was a way into getting to the bottom of what happened and how Jo had his Grandmother's ring.

"I heard that you and Zoe had a date last night. Have fun?" Grace asked him sipping her own Vincepresso with curious eyes. He guessed that even Grace was as curious about what was happening between him and Zoe as the rest of town. Zane was lost for a moment of what to say to her.

"Yeah it was" he replied and realised that he was nervous. Grace was close to Carter and the last thing he wanted was for to Carter to come and kick his ass for taking advantage of his little girl. Even though he hadn't taken her up of her offer the night before.

"She really likes you" Grace noted and though she was smiling he could tell she was sweeping his face with her eyes looking for a slight sign or give to his intentions towards Zoe. He carefully schooled his face into a neutral smile.

"It's just a crush" he replied, which of course would have been the truth till she'd told him that she did like him the night before but he could tell that Grace didn't believe him. Had Zoe's feelings been this obvious to read to everyone but him? After all though it wasn't exactly gentlemanly he'd only though it was a harmless crush he'd been exploiting, not actual feelings or emotions.

"Well, just be careful. You don't want to hurt anyone's feelings" Grace told him but her words didn't seem like a rebuke, perhaps more motherly advice. Grace Deacon was nice and that was a change for him, he was far more used to Carter and Jo pointing a finger at him at every moment for every little crime or misdeed in the town.

"I do care for her. And the last thing that I want to do is hurt her" he explained and he realised it was the most earnest thing that he'd said to Grace since the two had sat down together. As much as he wanted to know what was happening, and if he was honest kiss Jo again, he wouldn't do it at the expense of hurting Zoe. Not if he could help it. He just couldn't see how he could not hurt Zoe. Not since her confession last night.

"You and Jo seem to be talking a lot recently. Quite an improvement upon the two of you being at each other's throats all of the time" Grace noted and Zane, though panicked that she might know the two of them had kissed, sat up a little straighter. Grace had answers after all, answers that Jo Lupo wasn't giving him.

"Yeah, she suddenly started being nice to me. I guess the old charm finally worked it's magic eh?" he told her jokingly but he was returning her earlier scrutiny careful to look to see any clues to the change behind his relationship with Jo.

"Maybe she's just giving you a chance to prove that your not the delinquent she always painted you as. Jo isn't as hard as you paint her, she's a person too. You should keep that in mind" she noted and Zane couldn't help but feel that he was also being warned away from hurting Jo. But he had no idea why. They'd spent years trading insults so he'd had no idea why his words and actions would suddenly hurt her.

"Ah, Jo's a tough girl. She can handle herself" he replied and Grace shook her head, an almost sad look in her eyes.

"You might just not know Jo as well as you think you do Zane. Remember that" she replied and Zane took that as confirmation that Jo had changed. He wasn't the only one who had noticed and though he didn't know the reason why she'd changed, at least he knew now that she definitely had changed, that it wasn't just him going mad. Sure she had his ring but at times she seemed just like the hard ass Jo he'd always known but she obviously wasn't. Not any more and now he just needed to know why.

"Jo doesn't even like me. I doubt anything I do will hurt her" he told her though he knew that wasn't true. At least not any more. He had hurt her, he could see it in his eyes. But he couldn't stop, he needed to know. He needed to know why he cared about the pain in the ass so damn much these days.

"You never know, she might just surprise you"

XOX

"I hate men!" Zoe informed Jo as she sat down next to her. Jo had had to work through lunch to make sure that she completed all of her the forgotten paper work and she hadn't expected at this late hour to have company for lunch. Though Jo hated what was happening between Zoe and Zane, she couldn't ever be mad at Zoe. She loved her like a little sister and she knew Zoe loved her like a big one and she'd never intentionally hurt her.

No, she'd just stick to hating Zane. He was an ass anyway so at least he deserved it.

"Zane drama?" she asked echoing Zoe's words to her all those years ago. She didn't want to talk about Zane but she would never walk away from Zoe when she had a problem, Zane related or otherwise. She studied Zoe and could see the annoyed curl of the younger woman's lip.

"I only kissed him last night and he pushed me away like I was something gross and disgusting" Zoe explained with an angered slam of her fist into the table and Jo felt her stomach tighten but she quickly schooled away any discomfort and covered Zoe's hand with her own.

"Zoe you aren't disgusting. I'm sure this is way more to do with Zane and his issues than anything to do with you. He has had a lot of work recently" Jo suggested not being able to help but wonder whether or not their kiss had anything to do with him being unable to kiss Zoe.

"I really like him Jo. I know you hate him but I really do. And I thought he liked me but obviously not. Men suck" Zoe told her with a frustrated expression and Jo couldn't help but sympathise. She knew exactly what it was like for a man to give mixed signals and disappoint you after you put yourself out there emotionally. Seemed Zane was particularly good at that no matter which universe he was from.

"I don't hate him but I hate seeing him do this to you. Trust me this isn't at all a reflection on you Zoe, Zane is a man. And men never make things easy" Jo told her hating seeing her friend so obviously upset at Zane's rejection "Does this mean you aren't going after him any more?" Jo asked her and hated the part of herself that was relieved that Zane had pushed Zoe away. She couldn't hide the fact from herself that life would be easier to endure when the two people she loved the most weren't together any more, when they weren't hurting her any more unintentional as it was.

But Zoe shook her head "No, you don't get anything if you give up. I know Zane likes me and I'm not giving up on him. I like him too much" Zoe explained and Jo felt any hope of a emotional respite dissipate. But she quickly covered any disappointment with a concerned smile.

"Just be careful Zoe, I don't want you to get hurt" Jo told her and she meant every word. She wanted nothing more than for Zoe to be happy even if that meant that she had to see Zoe and Zane together. She loved Zoe, so much so that she couldn't even bring herself to be furiously jealous that Zoe had kissed the man that she loved.

"Don't worry Jo, I promise to be careful. Hopefully a couple of days of a cold shoulder will remind him of how much he enjoys spending time with me" Zoe told her taking a big bite of the burger that Vincent had brought her and seemed much happier than she had when she'd first sat down. Jo took a bite of her own food though she'd lost all of her appetite. It wasn't that Zoe was refusing to give up on Zane or that she'd kissed him that tied Jo's stomach into knots.

It was though she tried her hardest not too she couldn't help but hope that the reason Zane had pulled away from Zoe was because of her. And Jo hated herself for it.

XOX

Allison opened the door and smiled brightly at Jo pulling her for a warm hug. Jo felt a slight jealously as she looked at Allison, she looked beautiful. Though she always had ever since she and Carter had become involved, Allison was glowing. Whereas Jo fancied that she could all but see a perpetual cloud of misery settled upon her shoulders when she stared at her reflection.

"Welcome Jo, everyone's in the living room. Come on through, I'll get you a drink"

Jo followed Allison through and smiled at the gathered group. As per usual it was Grace, Henry, Fargo and Carter. Though he'd been annoying she had to admit she missed Grant's presence at such gatherings. His attempts at trying to win over Allison, and Carter's annoyance and jealously, were highly amusing.

"Jo!" Fargo said excitedly bouncing up and quickly moving to her side "I got that game for you" he told her and passed her over the new Halo. Though she had never been into games since she'd started to hang out with Fargo she'd been convinced to purchase an Xbox. She had to admit that the shooting games were a healthier outlet for her anger and upset that tasering Zane.

"Thanks Fargo" she replied and she smiled happily at him. No doubt she'd end up playing it later that evening and with the guys at some point. She'd been surprised to see that Vincent was actually really good though she had sworn them on pain of death to keep quiet that she'd been beaten at COD by Larry. She knew that people, especially Zane, would never let her live that one down.

"Things quietened down at work?" Grace asked her as Jo sat down and accepted the glass of wine that Allison had poured for her. She took a grateful sip.

"Bet you'd never see the day when you missed working with me eh Jo?" Carter asked her with a teasingly smile and she punched him lightly on the arm. It wasn't a hard punch more playful. Well, not _that _hard.

"When that day comes I'll send you a memo" she replied and Carter laughed. For a moment Jo felt like it was back in the old days when she'd been Carter's deputy and things had been better. But she quickly shook her head and broke herself out of her chain of thought. She was going to have fun tonight, not dwell in the past. She had nights of not sleeping to do that.

"Anything interesting happening at GD?" Carter asked the group and Jo knew she should tell them about the fact that Zane was sniffing around what had happened but she couldn't. She couldn't bear to break apart the light mood of joking and conversation. She enjoyed this and perhaps it was selfish, but she didn't want yet another night dominated by Zane. Both Zanes.

"I had to break up a fight between the Astrophysicists and the Biophysicists again" Fargo told them wearily and the group laughed. The feud had been running now for several weeks and showed no signs of abating. Fargo had even resorted to getting Jo to come down with the biggest gun she had resting on her hip just to get them back to work and not arguing like pre-schoolers.

"The biophysicists still think they have a small lab?" Henry asked and Fargo nodded. Jo was pretty sure that the only way he could convince them that the labs were the same was to get on his hands and knees with a tape measure. Though of course Eureka probably had a much more advanced version of a tape measure.

"They've been threatening to camp out in the Astrophysicists lab till we make theirs bigger. It's all very immature! Fargo explained as Jo caught Carter's eye and giggled. She knew this was only a run up to the inter-departmental bowling competition in a few weeks. It was Fargo's way of searching out new talent for the competition against Area 51 this year and would cause no end if inter-department friction. Though it would cause her a large amount of work it still amused her.

"Isn't this a bad omen for the bowling tournament?" Henry asked echoing Jo's thought.

"It can't be worse than that robo-dog competition can it?" Carter asked and Allison caught his eye and nodded. Carter obviously didn't realise that levels of competitiveness increased when you had to work in a next door lab to your competitors every day. Around GD being the 'best' was difficult when surrounded by so much brilliance and any chance to get a foot up on other departments and scientists was grabbed eagerly by all.

"You'll see Carter, you'll see" Jo told him patting him on the arm "Just be glad that it can't be worse than the infamous Scrabble tournament of 2003" she advised him and he looked confused for a moment.

"What happened in 2003?" he asked but everyone who had witnessed the carnage merely shook their heads. It had all come to a head when the biophysicists had released a enzyme upon the biochemists that caused them to go bald and Jo and Sheriff Cobbs had to intervene. In good time as the biochemists were already planning to release a bacteria whose affects ranged from weeping boils to serve incontinence upon their rivals.

"Don't worry Jack" Henry assured him "We'll just make sure Jo has a big gun from the start of the tournament this time"

Everyone laughed at the expression on Carter's face but despite her good mood Jo felt a knot of jealously settle in her stomach as she saw Allison laugh and kiss Carter's bewildered face as Grace and Henry laughed, Henry's arms coming to wrap around Grace's waist. She quickly turned away and downed her wine.

The door bell rang and Allison stood up to answer it "That must be Zane" she told them and she felt her stomach drop. Why the hell had Allison invited Zane? He never been invited to things before but she knew that he was close to Allison and Grace these days and spending far more time with them. Only Carter look unamused to see him though he quickly tried to pretend he wasn't.

Jo felt herself stiffen as Allison led Zane into the room. He caught her eyes and though his eyes were still burning with determination he sent her a wide grin and Jo knew that there would be no way that she could relax for the rest of the night. At least without the help of a large quantity of alcohol and fast.

XOX

Zane didn't know why but he'd wrangled himself a seat opposite Jo. Even though it meant that he was sat near Carter whom Jo had obviously hoped to use as a protective dad type shield. If he'd been more immature, or truthfully if he'd though he could have got away with it discreetly, he would have played footsie with her. Just more evidence that he was going mad. Though she did have very nice legs, and then _that _butt.

She'd ignored him all night pointedly keeping the direction of conversation away from him as much as possible. He would have laughed at the speed at which she stood up to grab her coat if she hadn't been so pointedly avoiding him. He stood up too.

"Jo you've had a lot of wine, want me to walk you home" he asked her eyeing up the empty glass next to the plate onto which she'd been given her chocolate cake.

She focused on him and he knew that she couldn't even for a moment argue that she wasn't drunk "I'm fine"

"Jo let Zane walk you home, you both live in the same direction so it makes sense" Grace added and Zane inwardly couldn't help but suspect that Grace was trying to get him closer to Jo just as she'd been telling him about how Jo had changed and that he needed to get to know her better.

He could see her battling her desire to avoid him and her desire not to cause a scene and finally she sighed "Fine. Come on, I wanna get home before midnight" she told him coolly and carried on saying her goodbyes as he gathered his coat.

Once they stepped outside her manner was as brisk as the night wind and she quickly cut him off before he had a chance to speak "Go on, get harassing me for answers you aren't going to get out of the way for the night" she informed him and he looked at her face and grinned. He already concluded that asking her outright wasn't working, he had to get her to trust him. At least a little. And to do that he had to prove to her that he wasn't the scum of the earth that she seemed to think he was. Which, with their history, could be harder than it sounded.

"You're hot when you're mad" he told her and she rolled her eyes at him. Not the smoothest line but true. She was hot, he'd never denied that even as he'd hated her guts. After all he was a man.

"Well, you're not as charming as you think you are" she told him and he laughed. He'd already learnt that since he'd come to Eureka after all he had been trying to charm Jo into bed since he'd got here.

"Oh please, you know you want me, always have" he teased her and he could all but see the annoyance ticking behind her eyes. He liked goading her because as he'd already said she was awfully hot when he did. He couldn't help but think she'd be a hell cat in the bedroom.

"Has anyone ever told you that you suffer from delusions of grandeur?" she informed him turning away from him and looking directly in front of her.

"You know what they say. There's a fine line between love and hate and that we usually hate the ones we actually love" he reminded her and she shook her head but didn't offered a come back. By now the old Jo would have usually threatened to do some kind of permanent damage to a valuable appendage.

"Please don't hurt Zoe" she said finally and looked at her. Her expression was sad and he was once more with the urge to take her into his arms and protect her. It was so unusual for tough as nails Jo to look so vulnerable and it moved him in a way he couldn't describe "She really likes you you know"

He sighed and looked down away from her. Her expression was making him uncomfortable "I know. I thought it was just a harmless crush" he explained knowing that he should have known that it was more than that. He was just so wrapped up in annoying Carter and then with his relationship with Jo.

"If you don't want more you need to tell her. The longer you wait the more she'll just end up getting hurt" Jo continued and Zane knew she was right. He didn't want to hurt Zoe by turning her down but he'd only hurt her more if he continued to lead her on.

"I know" he looked at her and paused for a moment "I know you really care for Zoe but are you sure that's the only reason you didn't want us together?" he asked her and she frowned at him and let out a small, sarcastic laugh

"And what other reason would there be?" she asked him

"Well for one you seemed to think at one point we we're getting married and then there was that kiss. You can't deny that you weren't into that. And of course you had my Grandmother's ring" he reminded her and she quickly looked away but he could see panic in her face.

"I told you that there is nothing going on between us, never has been and never will" she replied and he knew that he had to let the subject drop. He couldn't push her too far, and asking if she was some sort of time travelling, alternate universe Jo which was the only conclusion he could come too illogical as it was, would definitely be pushing it too far.

They spent the rest of the walk home in silence. Zane had no idea what to say, he could have teased her some more but that didn't feel right and he didn't want to push her into a confession. Or a mood because he'd tried to push her into a confession. It was only when they reached her front door that she spoke again.

"Zane I don't feel too good"

It was only as he studied her face that he realised that she didn't look too good. But then again she had been downing wine and then the Vodka someone had brought at an alarming rate through dinner. He knew she could drink but even Jo paced herself a lot more sensibly than she had been doing. He couldn't help but hope that it wasn't his presence that had turned Jo into an alcoholic though he guessed it probably was.

"I'll help you get in then" he told her and for a moment he expected her to argue with him that she was fine but she must have been feeling worse than he thought because she merely nodded and handed him over her keys. She hadn't seemed ill as they were walking home but she seemed to be getting more and more pale as the seconds ticked by.

He hurried to open the front door as quickly as possible keeping one eye on her as he did so. Once the door was open she rushed past him and into the bathroom. He couldn't help but be impressed. Even though her floor was littered with boxes and Jo herself was very drunk she avoided them with a amazing sense of grace and balance.

He heard the door slam and the sounding of vomiting so he stepped in and closed the door. He knew that she'd no doubt kill him in the morning but he wasn't so much of a bastard that he'd leave her alone as she threw up. Jo obviously hadn't had much chance to unpack so finding a place to sit was a problem. He made his way through to the kitchen were there was at least a chair to sit down on next to the table. As he sat down he couldn't help but notice among the boxes a pile of photographs.

His curiosity got the better of him and he started to thumb through them. Most were of a younger Jo with people he didn't recognise though some he could guess were her family. There were a few from Eureka with Carter and various other people but it was the one at the bottom that caught his attention the most. It was small, a passport photo from a photo booth, and stuck slightly to the back of one of Jo with Fargo and Vincent. As he looked over it he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

It was him. And Jo. But it couldn't be. He had her tucked under his arm to his side as closely as he possible could as if he was scared to let her go. She had eyes closed and a brilliant contented smile on her face as he kissed one cheek and cupped the other in the palm of his hand. He turned it over and saw another photograph was glued to the back, another photo booth one. Jo was obviously sat on his lap, her arms around his neck while his sat around her waist. The two of them were kissing seemingly lost in a moment captured forever on film. A date stamp was printed on the bottom and he couldn't help but remember that the closest the two of them had gotten last August had been when she'd physically thrown him into a cell. Not this.

He dropped the photo suddenly knowing why she had his ring. Jo and this version of him, however that was possible, were in love. It was easy to tell and he must have asked her to marry him. And Jo had told him yes thinking he was the Zane in this photo. But he had no idea how this was possible. But he couldn't just come out and ask, it was an invasion of her privacy just looking through her things and he couldn't lie. He wasn't this Zane but his feelings had changed towards Jo, he cared about her and he wanted her to tell him the truth in her own time because she trusted him.

All became silent and he quickly hid the photo as his stomach reeled. He pushed open the toilet door and Jo was all but passed out with her long hair covering her face. He sat next to her and propped her up, thankfully she was non sick covered, and brushed the hair out of her face.

Her eyes opened "Zane..." she muttered and he started to pull her up from the floor. She doubted she'd be dragging herself to bed any time soon. He debated undressing her but decided that she'd definitely kill him for that so tucked into her bed after taking off her shoes.

"Goodnight Jo, I'll push the keys through letterbox" he told her but though her eyes were closed she reached out a hand

"Don't leave me alone, I'm tired of being alone" she told him and he knew that in her drunk and exhausted state she was starting to blur him with the other Zane. But she looked so fragile that he couldn't help but to slip of his own shoes and sit down next to her brushing a hand across her hair.

"Jo you're not alone" he assured her. He wasn't the Zane in that photo but he'd do his best to be there for her. He didn't understand this Jo but he wanted too. He wanted his answers yes but he wanted something else as well. As much as he hated the thought he wanted to be closer to Jo Lupo, to get to know her and for her to trust him.

She edged closer to him and tucked herself into his side "I love you. Please don't go away again" she mumbled sleepily and almost immediately fell asleep.

"I'm not going anywhere" he promised and as he knew she would definitely kill him if she woke up and found him asleep in her bed he gently slid away from her and sat down on the chair across from her bed watching the slight rise and fall of her chest. He had no idea what was going on or how Jo could have been in love with another version of him but he wasn't going anywhere till he found out. He just had to get her to trust him which he'd obviously managed once so it wasn't impossible.

Praying that she wouldn't remember telling him that she loved him he kept his eyes on her sleeping form until he fell into a fitful sleep filled with dreams of Jo Lupo, photo booth kisses, and the silky smooth feel of her hair under his fingers.

XOX

Jo felt like her head was splitting open when she woke up the next morning. Nausea rushed to her stomach and her mouth felt like the sahara desert her tongue and throat were so dry.

That would teach her to drink so much. It was just another thing that she'd blame on Zane after all the only reason she'd been so eager to drink was because he was there. Stupid Zane.

She opened her eyes and quickly shut them again as the light caused pain to explode behind her eyeballs and in her skull. She hadn't been this hung over since high school. It was only when a snore caught her attention that she snapped her eyes open ignoring the pain as she sat up. Her heart almost stopped in her chest when she looked across her room and saw that Zane of all people was curled up asleep in her wicker bedroom chair.

She groaned and screwed shut her eyes when she realised that he'd walked her home the night before. He'd obviously put her to bed and she quickly felt her body to check he hadn't taken the opportunity to undress her. She had no idea how she was supposed to live this one down. Zane would never let her forget that she'd gotten so drunk that he'd have to put her to bed. And what if Zoe found out? She'd never forgive her.

When she opened her eyes again she realised that Zane was awake staring directly at her as she sat in bed stilling almost groping her own chest to make sure she was dressed. He smiled at her brightly.

"Good morning sunshine. How we feeling then?"


	3. Chapter 3

_Hey :) Sorry for being away all week but had a mad week at work and interviews for Uni while being ill, so not had time to update. I have had a kind offer of a beta but I thought I would check this through myself and get it up as quickly as possible, you've been waiting long enough. I am really sorry about that. _

_So hope you enjoy this :) I have the next chapter written (with Zoe angst, Carter/Jo bonding and Zane/Jo drinking games) and the next one half written as well so shouldn't be too long till I update after this once that chapter has been beta'd. As far as Eva and the underground complex in this story Eva never came to Eureka in the alternate time line so therefore the underground complex where the bomb was found hadn't been discovered. _

_**SUGGESTIONS NEEDED:** In other news I need your help, please help me choose songs for characters to sing in an upcoming karaoke contest, any character can be used be just ships for this story so Jo/Zane, Carter/Allison, Henry/Grace and Fargo/Claudia – so pretty much anything goes :) _

_Thank you for reading and please tell me what you think. This chapter is dedicated to **Basbella, CharmedNightSkye **and** Mellimon **for reviewing and **Clarinetto14 **for the offer of beta'ing. You guys make my week :) _

_Thank you, happy reading :) _

**Chapter Three**

Jo starred back a Zane and she honestly had no idea what to say to him. He was smirking at her but a small voice at the back of her head was reminding her exactly how cute he looked when his dark hair was all sleep ruffled. She shook her head and gathered the sheets to her chest. She didn't need the protection to cover herself but to act as like a barrier between her and the man sat opposite her.

"Why did you stay here?" Jo asked him though the answer was obvious. If she'd been so drunk that she wasn't able to remember getting into bed no doubt he'd stayed over to make sure she hadn't chocked on her vomit in the night or something. This Zane was a bit of a jerk sometimes, just like her Zane had been at first, but he wasn't that much of a jerk.

"Aww don't worry Jo, I didn't take advantage of you" he told her with his smirk still fixated firmly to his face. Jo didn't know this Zane as well as she had the old Zane but she knew his basic character enough to know that even he would 't stoop to the levels of completely taking advantage of a sleeping, comatose drunk woman.

"Well that's good because if you did I may have had to break a few fingers" she threatened but her heart wasn't in it. Waking up with Zane again, as separately as they had slept, was drudging up a uncomfortable sense of familiarity that she shouldn't have with this Zane. It was perhaps just how much he looked like he belonged in her bedroom that alarmed her almost allowing her to completely pretend for a moment that the shift in the time lines had never happened and it was just another morning in Zane's apartment.

"I know you can kill a man with your thumb. You've told me enough" he told her and she wished she could remember what he'd done to her to make her wheel out that particular threat. She wished that she and the others were at least giving some sort of crib sheet for this alternative universe. At least she wouldn't feel a million steps behind everyone else and then she'd know why she'd hated Zane so much.

"And my big toe probably. If I really had to" she added and he laughed standing up and stretching to give her a brief flash of the tanned skin of his midriff. Jo quickly looked away. She'd seen him naked of course but it wasn't this Zane and she felt slightly like a pervert staring at his chest like a teenage girl. Though it was a very nice chest as she couldn't help but note that this Zane seemed to work out far more than her Zane had in the last few months they'd be together. And since when had he had that tattoo?

He caught her eye and she blushed causing him to laugh and her stare at anything that wasn't him.

"I'll leave you to get ready. I'll make coffee and bagels" he told her and opened the bedroom door making his way towards the kitchen. Jo waited till he was out of sight and swung her feet out of bed making her way towards the shower and ignoring the pounding sensation in her head.

The water helped with her aching body but it didn't flush away the embarrassment that she felt at having to be put to bed by Zane of all people. He was the last person she wanted seeing her in such a vulnerable position especially if she'd said anything compromising that she couldn't remember. But he hadn't been acting weird with her any more so than usual with this Zane. She have to keep an eye out for any signs that she'd told him what was going on.

She got dressed quickly weary of leaving Zane alone for too long in her kitchen and made her way down the stairs. Zane was leaning against the kitchen counter top sipping a wide brimmed white mug filled with steaming coffee and eating a slice of toast. Next to him sat another cup and a freshly prepared five grain bagel. How did he know what she had for breakfast?

As if seeing the direction of her gaze her began to explain "I've heard you ordering in Cafe Diem before. Hows the head?" he asked her gazing at her over the rim of the coffee cup he was holding close to his face as he blew on it to cool it down.

"Like a bulldozer is running over it repeatedly. I am really sorry about last night Zane. You shouldn't have had to be responsible for putting me to bed because I got so drunk" she apologised feeling a wave of shame and embarrassment wash over her again.

He shrugged and smiled at her "Don't worry Jo, it really wasn't a problem. You can just give me a nice sensual message to get the knots out of my neck from sleeping in that chair all night" he told her with a wink and she rolled her eyes coming to stand next to him and taking a bite of the bagel he'd made her. It was good surprisingly as the Zane she'd known wouldn't have even known how to use the grill.

"I'm sure if you ask Carter nice enough he'll give you one. Allison said he's good at massages" Jo replied dead pan and they looked at each for a moment and then both started to laugh at the idea of Carter giving Zane a sensual, oil back rub.

"I don't think he'd look quite as good as you in the uniform. Not as nice legs" he commented and Jo smiled. Despite this being a different Zane it was still good to have this teasing banter back. After all Zane hadn't just been her boyfriend, he'd been one of her best friends too. And she missed his friendship just as much as she missed him being her other half.

The two finished breakfast and Zane offered to drive Jo to work. She nodded and accepted knowing that she didn't trust herself to drive. Outside she couldn't help but start to apologise again for all the trouble that she caused him especially after she been so difficult and horrible when he'd tried to talk to her the day before. He hadn't even brought up the ring so far. Perhaps he'd realised she wasn't going to tell him or he already knew because she'd drunkenly blabbed. She chose just to push the thought away momentarily, she was far too hungover.

Zane patted her on the arm and sent her an amused smile "Jo it wasn't problem. And anyway it wasn't that much of a problem cause now I can tell everyone at GD how cute you look when you drool"

Jo punched him on the arm.

**XOX**

"Someone told me you didn't stay at yours last night"

Zane turned around to see Fargo walking behind him. Fargo had a habit of knowing everything that happened in Eureka especially when it concerned Josafina Lupo. Zane wouldn't put it past Fargo not to have followed the two of them just to make sure Zane treated Jo properly. It was strange to see Jo and Fargo talking and laughing together as only a few months ago Jo hated Fargo just as much as she'd hated him. It seemed that he wasn't the only person Jo had a very different relationship with in whatever parallel word they'd come from.

"And what is it to you Fargo? Jealous?" Zane asked him with a curve of his eyebrow smirking as the younger man turned a rather startling shade of violet. Fargo may have been the head of Eureka but Zane had never been particularly sacred of him. It was Jo that everyone was scared of and the large collection of weaponry she kept in her office.

"I'm not jealous. Jo's a friend and I don't want to see you use her as just another notch on the Zane Donovan bedpost. It's bad enough what you're doing with Zoe. Jo deserves better than that and I would hate to be you if you hurt her" Fargo stated and then looked slightly startled that he'd actually just voiced his opinions to Zane.

As far as Zane could tell Fargo was inwardly still the shy boy who been picked on at school, probably by a girl he'd secretly had a crush on, and didn't seem to stand up for himself or his opinions as much as he probably should.

Zane turned to him feeling his neck throb from where he'd slept funny the night before. Teasing or not a massage would have actually been very helpful but he ignored the pain and replied to Fargo "You know if you ask nicely enough I'm sure Lupo will go on a date with you"

Fargo frowned at him then suddenly looked rather proud with himself "This isn't about that. I have a girlfriend actually" Fargo told him smugly and Zane thought back to that Claudia Donovan. He, and everyone else, had seen the spark of attraction between the two of them even though he hadn't understood why. For a moment he'd caught Jo's eye and known they were on the same wave length at least for a brief period of time.

Zane sent him a surprised smile "Well done Fargo, she's hot" Zane told him and Fargo looked as if he was grinding his teeth at the mere thought that Zane, a notorious womanizer, might find his girlfriend hot. Fargo of course didn't know he didn't have anything to worry about. Zane only had room to think about one woman at the moment.

"If you two are do with your male bonding I think we have a meeting to go to" a voice cut across and both men turned to see Jo stood behind them with an unamused expression of her face. Zane couldn't help but compare it to the smile she'd been wearing that morning when they'd be discussing Carter's prowess as a masseuse. It seemed she'd gone back to looking slightly disgusted by him and he couldn't help but hate that she wasn't smiling any more.

"Sorry Jo, me and Zane were just having a chat. Nothing important, after you" Fargo explained holding open the door to the lab in which Allison and Carter had already gathered. Jo smiled at him, ignored Zane and walked into the room followed by Fargo. Zane couldn't help but notice that the door wasn't held open for him. Obviously Fargo didn't find his ass of any interest as he did Jo's.

Inside everyone was sitting down and he sat next to Jo. She looked at him and quickly looked away but she didn't make a comment about not wanting to be sat near him so he was making progress. Though he wasn't sure was constituted good progress with a woman who'd already been in love with another version of himself. Funnily enough he'd never been in this situation before.

Doctor Blake smiled at the gathered people and started when Fargo nodded at her. Zane felt a stab of what some might call jealously form in his chest at the tender smile Carter gave her when she stood to begin. It was the same expression he had in his eyes as the other him had kissed Jo. A feeling this Zane had never experienced or wanted too until this Jo Lupo had appeared with her sweet ass, killer smile and that sad look in her eyes that made him want to don a shining suit of armour and protect her.

Doctor Blake began talking "As you may or may not know know there is an underground bunker based underneath Eureka dating from the First World War. This complex has been indicated to contain hazardous materials and directly atop Eureka's water supply. Due to measured levels of erosion we're concerned about these materials leaking into the water supply as a very small trace of the material was discovered in the water supply within the complex. So therefore it is of the highest importance that the complex is cleared and secured safely and quickly"

Zane looked over the papers and read-outs that he'd been handed "So you've already accessed this complex?" he asked and Doctor Blake nodded "How did you find it?"

Doctor Blake briefly looked uncomfortable before Fargo intervened "Old records we had been sorting through for the DOD. What matter's isn't how we found it but how we're going to handle decontamination." Fargo told him but Zane knew when he was being fobbed off. That wasn't how the complex had been discovered and everyone else in the room knew that.

"But do you have any idea what this hazardous material does?" Zane asked and Fargo nodded pointing out a set out read-outs on Zane's paper work that detailed several sets of tests that had been conducted with the initial sample of the material in question.

"As you can see from the tests conducted on the initial sample it seems to have a accelerated ageing affect on the cells is was introduced to" Doctor Blake explained and Zane quickly read through the data himself. If these results were any indication if this material did get into the water supply it would be disastrous upon the cell structure of the body and the ageing process of the affected individual.

"Yeah, real barrel of laughs" Carter added with a smile though his eyes were serious "Almost as fun as the flesh eating bacteria we had a few weeks back though far less messy"

"I've been selecting teams to work on the decontamination of the complex for you Allison each highly proficient I dealing with and handling hazardous substances" Jo told the older woman handing her several sheets of paper "I've grouped them into two groups, one to be lead be Fargo and one by Zane"

"Hang on, this isn't my field. Why am I leading a team?" Zane asked and Fargo sighed and pointed out another sheet of data that he had yet to read through. It wasn't his fault, he couldn't help but think that the others gathered knew far more about this than him and he'd been distracted by a new, DOD commissioned missile defence system for the last week which was now into the last round of testing.

Doctor Blake fixed him with a steady gaze "This was the complex in which was created the first atomic bomb. As soon as you get down there you'll see for yourself exactly why we need you on this"

**XOX**

"Zane's know we aren't telling him the truth" Jo voiced to Allison as the two women made their way back from the meeting towards their perspective offices after the meeting.

"About the bunker? Even so we can't tell him that we know about it because it was opened by Eva Thorne in our alternate time line. For all we know at the moment Eva is one of those bodies, no-one can find any record of her. We have to ensure that what happened to Zoe does occur again but we can't tell Zane how we know about the bunker without telling him everything" Allison told her softly moving closer to her so that that anyone passing was unable to listen in to their conversation.

Jo swallowed knowing that she should tell Allison exactly how much Zane knew thanks to her and her stupid hallucination but she couldn't. She admired Allison too much to admit to her that she had been the first one to break, the weak link. It was dangerous not too but she just couldn't do it.

"Even so he suspects something. Especially if we go down there with him and he can tell we've been down here before. Can't we just keep him away from the mission?" Jo asked

"Jo there's a bomb down there. A bomb that Zane originally managed to harness and complete. If worse comes to worse and the water supply is infected we'll need Zane on this Jo. I'm not taking a risk with this. You saw what happened with Zoe and the bodies down there, it's too dangerous" Allison replied and Jo nodded knowing that she was right. If she got infected she knew that it would be Zane that she wanted to be working on saving her.

"You've removed the bodies though? If Zane sees them and starts poking around it won't take him long to realise that we already knew who they were" Jo stated knowing that none of them would strive and dedicate so much time to discovering the identity of the men they already knew and Zane would immediately pick up on the lack of curiosity.

"Already done. Tests are being completed to pinpoint to the highest possible margin that the people down there in this reality are the same as in ours" Allison paused and placed a hand on her arm and smiled at Jo "I know that you're afraid of Zane finding out the truth but we can't block him out Jo, then he'll definitely know something is going on"

"Too late. I think he's already on to us" Jo told her remembering the moment after he'd kissed her. He was right, it hadn't been like a first kiss but more like they'd kissed a thousand times before. Mostly because they had.

Allison looked thoughtful for a moment and then looked at her "Would it really be that terrible if Zane knew? Deep down he's the same person we knew and I know we can trust him. We work so closely with him it would be a relief not to have to lie to him any more"

Jo let out a snort of disbelief and looked away "He's not the same as my Zane Allison and he never will be" she said sadly quickly washed over with a sense of the strange familiarity she experienced with him that morning as they'd shared breakfast.

"Jo I know that he's different but deep down he's the same person" Allison continued to argue but Jo shook her head firmly

"With Fargo being in charge him came to Eureka an entire year after he did in our time line. The events that shaped him and matured him into the Zane that I loved never happened. He's still the immature womansier that he was when I first met him. He may be Zane but he isn't my Zane and he never will be" Jo told Allison feeling the over-whelming sense of loss settle in her stomach when she thought back to her life with Zane before she'd been thrown back into the past.

Allison fixed her with a friendly yet steady eyed gaze "Jo, Zane's changed so much recently just from being around you. Can you not see that the Zane we knew didn't change because of when he came to Eureka or what happened to him, he changed because he cared for you. Zane isn't the same as when we first got here, I know that we can trust him"

Jo thought over what Allison had told her. When he'd proposed he'd told her that she'd made an honest man out of him. Could it really be her that had changed him? She'd always thought it had been Eureka and the series of events and people that had led up to the moment when her Zane had proposed but she'd never thought of how much of an influence she'd been on him.

Allison squeezed her arm and sent her a comforting smile "I know you feel like you're betraying Zane by giving this one a chance to be a friend, to trust him but you're not. He's the same person Jo and you can't just stop loving someone. I know you can't just jump into a relationship with him, and that's not what I want, I just want you to give this Zane a chance. And maybe think over letting him know at least a little of what happening"

Jo nodded knowing the Allison had summed up exactly how she was feeling. She was riddled by guilt because she felt that she was betraying her Zane by the feelings she been having about this Zane. And she knew that technically they were the same person but he wasn't and her feelings were tearing her apart.

"I'll think about it" Jo told her and Allison smiled brightly at her and as usual Jo was amazed at how beautiful and luminescent she was.

"That's my girl. Jenna made you a picture, want to come over tonight and collect it? I know she misses her auntie JoJo reading her a story" Allison asked and Jo nodded the two parting ways and heading back to their own offices.

Once inside she sank into her chair and let out a long sigh. She knew it would easier to tell Zane what was going on like they had with Grace because they were all working so closely together and it was exhausting keeping up the collective guard around their secret. But if they did there'd be no more walls between them and she wasn't sure how she'd be able to cope with that.

What would she do when she had no more excuses to push Zane away?

**XOX**

"There's my girl" Jo cooed happily as Jenna smiled up at her and all but ran head first into her legs. It was after work and as promised Jo had come to visit Jenna. She swept the little girl up into her arms and gave her a massive hug. Jenna threw her arms around Jo's neck and snuggled her somewhat sticky face into her skin.

When had Jenna got so huge? Jo felt a momentary twinge of guilt knowing that she'd spent far more time worrying about Zane recently but it quickly disappeared as Jenna gave her a sticky, banana scented kiss straight onto her cheek.

"Hey Jo, Jenna's been waiting for you at the door since I said you were coming" Carter told her and Jo had to fight back a giggle when she saw that he was all but covered head to toe in the banana mush she guessed had supposed to have been Jenna's tea.

"Liking the new look" Jo commented and Carter grinned at her from underneath his yellow topcoat.

"I'd look at yourself first" he commented and she looked down to see that her top was now also covered in yellow banana mush. Carter laughed as she realised and Jo took a smudge of the mush and flicked it over towards his head.

"Oh Jo, I'm really sorry"Allison exclaimed as she came to greet her from the kitchen and looked at the mess that Jo was covered in and Jo laughed at the horrified expression on Allison's face.

"Don't worry Allison, Jenna's just being creative" Jo reassured her tickling Jenna under her arm pit and making her giggle and burrow further into the crook of her neck. Allison raised a disbelieving eyebrow

"Creative perhaps. I think she's been spending too much time with you Jack" Allison told her and Carter and Carter put a mock expression of hurt on his face and turned towards the two women.

"Hey! That's very unfair" he told them all but pouting and the two of them laughed "My house is spotless"

"Carter that's only because your house has the ability clean itself. Have you seen your desk lately" Jo asked him and followed Allison through to the kitchen still tickling Jenna with one of her hands while holding her with the other. Just as everyone had been so surprised that she liked wedding dresses, they'd been just as surprised that she'd liked children as much as she did. But she was the youngest of her siblings so had been surrounded by nephews and nieces for years. Jo was good with kids and she liked being around them as much as it was the last thing people expected from the gun carrying, ex West Point head of security.

"Jack, can you go and help Jenna get the pictures she made for Jo while I just have a word with her?" Allison asked and Jo handed Jenna to Carter with one last banana kiss and a tickle to the tummy before sitting down at the kitchen table with Allison.

Allison passed her a cup of coffee "Jo I have something to ask you"

Jo suddenly felt her good mood fade away. The last thing she wanted to do was discuss her emotions any more. She had enough, definitively so for one day "This isn't about Zane is it?"

Allison smiled and shook her head "No it isn't. As you know me and Jack are getting Jenna christened soon and we were wondering if you'd like to be one her godmothers along with Grace?" Allison asked her and for a moment Jo had no idea what to say. No one had ever asked her something like that, afterall she'd never been great with female friendships, and she was beyond touched.

"I'd be honoured" Jo replied smiling brightly and Allison squeezed her hand that lay in the middle of the table.

"You're a wonderful person Jo and Jenna loves you. We couldn't think of a better person to be a role model for Jenna as she grows up" Allison explained and Jo nodded trying to keep back a tear that had gathered in the corner of one of her eyes. Ever since the kiss her emotions had been close to the surface and she'd never realised how much Allison and Jack thought of her especially as they were two of the people she respected most in Eureka.

Jenna ran back into the room and saved Jo from any embarrassing displays of over-emotion. Jo lifted her into her lap and Jenna almost with a shy smile handed her a picture. It was of the two of them playing outside and as always Jo was amazed at how advanced Jenna was for her age. Though she really shouldn't, she was a child of a genius after all.

"Jen Jen that's brilliant, I'll put it on the wall next to my bed" she told her and Jenna smiled happily and hugged her round the middle as Jo quickly hugged her back

"Jo Jo, 'ove yoo" Jenna told her, again showing exactly advanced she really was, and Jo smiled.

"I love you too Jen Jen. You know what we should do now? Tickle Uncle Jack" Jo told Jenna and a mischievous smile spread across her little, banana covered face as a horrified expression covered Carter's. Jo had discovered that he was ticklish when she'd been living with him and wanted to watch 'Four Weddings' and all he'd wanted to watch was sport and they'd ended up arguing over the remote. Though she'd usually won the discovery of exactly how ticklish Carter was all but guaranteed her victory every time.

"I don't suppose you two want to give an old guy a little bit of mercy?" Carter asked them and Jo looked at Jenna and the two turned back towards Carter and shook their heads almost in unison.

Carter all but ran out of the room as Allison laughed.

**XOX**

Something was going on with that bunker, complex whatever it was and Zane was determined that it would be another secret that he'd get to the bottom of. Though he had no idea how they were here from an alternate reality or perhaps from the future. He knew the theories behind time travel and parallel universes but as far as he knew none of them had a real world application. Obviously they were possible and he wanted to know how.

But he still wouldn't push Jo because he didn't want her to hate him any more. He wanted her to trust him and tell him in her own time. Why he wanted her to trust him he didn't know, a month ago he wouldn't have charged straight in demanding answers but since that kiss, and seeing her so vulnerable he just couldn't do that. However that didn't stop him from doing his own investigation. Like a modern day Nancy Drew. Only male. And not quite as corny.

He was sat nursing a beer in Cafe Diem. His apartment had seemed far too lonely and empty for some reason and he'd decided to get out. Of course he should have known that Zoe would be there. He just had no idea how to deal with her though that was his own fault for milking it too far.

She sat down a few stools from him and smiled at Vince "Can I have a Vincepresso?" she asked and Vincent nodded moving away to get her order. She continued to ignore him and Zane sighed and decided to bite the bullet.

"Hey Zoe"

She ignored him for a moment longer and then turned to him, her expression icy "Hello Zane"

He looked at the coffee that she was drinking and nodded towards it "I thought Carter had banned Vincent from giving them to you" he noted remembering the arguments that had arisen over Zoe's caffeine habits in the past. Perhaps only second in the longest running Carter household argument behind the tattoo debate.

"I'm a college student now Zane, I'm not a kid any more" she told him pointedly and he knew without a doubt that she was also reminding him that she was a grown woman, not just a little kid with a crush. A distinction he should have realised before.

"Zoe we need to talk about the other night" he continued knowing that he had to take Grace's advice and deal with the situation he'd gotten himself into with Zoe. He didn't like it and though he knew that Carter didn't want himself anywhere near Zoe he'd still come after him with a choice weapon or two for hurting her.

"Well right now I'm a bit busy" she replied tautly "I'm waiting for a friend, we're going seeing a movie" Zoe informed him and turned around as a banging sounded at the window. Zane recognised Pilar and several other of Zoe's friends that he'd met when he'd gone to the lake with them.

Zoe finished her drink and stood to leave and Zane caught her arm and pulled her to face him "We do need to talk" he told her and she nodded

"Just tell me when you're not so distracted" she informed him and turned away heading towards the door just as Jo stepped in. Zoe smiled and waved at her and then disappeared outside to talk to Pilar both of them throwing him pointed looks through the glass. He hadn't understood teenage girls when he'd been a teenager and he certainly didn't now.

"Lover's tiff?" Jo asked him as she sat down next to him a few seats up from where Zoe had been but still with a seat between them. She had an quizzical expression on her face but also an air of hurt she always wore when he saw her with Zoe. He'd always thought she was just jealous cause she'd realised she'd missed her chance with a fine male specimen such as himself but the photo cast her emotions towards him and Zoe into a whole new light.

"I have to find a way of telling Zoe that it isn't going to be the relationship that she wants it to be" he told Jo trying to gage her reaction to the news but she schooled her face into an annoyingly neutral expression that gave very little away.

"You shouldn't have led her on" Jo told her with a disapproving tone of voice and Zane quickly remembered how close Zoe and Jo actually were. He dropped his head.

"I know. I thought it was just a harmless school girl crush. I guess I'm just a blind idiot huh?" he asked her and she nodded folding her arms across her chest.

"Well I won't tell you not to tell her because she'll just end up hurt more in the long run if continue to lead her on but if you hurt her more than you have too if won't just be Carter you're having to hide from" Jo warned him and he nodded quickly. He knew that look, Jo was deadly serious.

"Aye aye captain. Just promise this, you won't give Carter anything that cause's permanent damage?" he asked her and she looked for a moment as if she'd refuse but then she let out a small laugh.

"I promise" she looked at her watch and then looked back at him "Do you want a drink? As a thank you for looking after me last night" she asked and he grinned at her brightly

"Now Jo, one could think that you were just trying to get me drunk and take advantage of me" he told her and she rolled her eyes at him and raised her eyebrows in his direction.

"Zane you really need to stop flattering yourself or you won't be able to fit your already sizeable ego in your lab" she retorted and he laughed. He much preferred this Jo and her vocal retorts to the Jo who'd have been reaching for her gun by this point.

"I'll have a beer and just to let you know it takes more than a beer to get me into bed. I'm not that kind of boy. But second base? Not a problem" he told her with a grin and she merely shook her head though he could see the grin on her own face.

"Don't worry Zane, if I ever get that desperate I'll remember to buy you a burger to go with the beer" she replied as she ordered two beers for them. Zane if he were honest knew that it would take even a beer if Jo Lupo got naked and welcomed him into his bed. He couldn't help but be jealous of his other self who'd gotten to do just that. Lucky sonofa bitch.

Jo ordered him a beer and he looked at her quizzically for a moment "Jo what on earth are you covered in? And why do you smell like banana?" he asked her and she looked down as if just remembering the yellow stains all over the dark vest she was wearing.

"Jenna's decided that her tea looked nicer on me and Carter than actually eating it" Jo explained to him and he laughed accepting the beer that Vincent brought him. Jo he noticed seemed to have ordered a cappuccino instead of a beer and he inwardly laughed only being able to imagine too well the hang over she must have had from her drinking session the night before.

"Bad hangover huh?" he asked her and she nodded rubbing her fingers across her temples though Zane had to admit that she looked much better than she had the night before and this morning. Even covered in banana, and of course smelling of banana, she was still beautiful.

"Yeah, I haven't drunk that much since high school. I forgot about the morning after" Jo told him and then looked down and paused for a moment before looking back up at him "I really am grateful for you looking after me last night Zane. I guess haven't really given you a chance. Friends?" she asked him and though he was happy that she was actually offering him her friendship he couldn't help but be disappointed.

Even as he reached out his hand to shake hers he knew he was lying. He wanted something more than this, and though all he'd wanted was for her to trust him and to be her friend, when she actually offered him that he knew it wasn't what he'd wanted all along. What he wanted before he'd found out about his alternate history with Jo, what he'd wanted since he'd met her three years ago.

"Friends. Shall we drink to that?" he asked her and she nodded with a smile lifting her cup to her lips. As the two of them bumped their drinks together and took a long sip he was hit with an interesting revaluation he'd always known since she'd been shot and he'd sat by her bed waiting for her to wake up.

He was falling for Jo Lupo and he had no idea what the hell to do about it. So simply put; he was entirely and thoroughly screwed.


	4. Chapter 4

Hey :) Sorry for taking so long to update this, just had two wisdom teeth out and haven't been feeling great but I hope that this is okay. I hope to get the next chapter back from my Betas next week to put it up so shouldn't take as long this time. I am very sorry about this and promise to not be so lacking in updating in the future.

Anyways a huuuge thank you to **Clarinetto14** and **RyaJynx** for beta'ing this for me. Grammar has never been a strong point and it's invaluable to have other people help me with that and sentence structure so thank you very much, can't say how much I appreciate the help with everything :)

Thank you to everyone who reviewed, you made me feel so much better when I've been feeling miserable and ill. So thank you very much to - **Mellimon, Daitanro, TwiCloiser89, RyaJynx, bassbella, ashipper2, CharmedNightSkye, liferscove2118** and **Clarinetto14.** You guys are awesome.

Anyways here's to the next chapter, sorry it's not very Jo/Zane but needed to sort out that 'Zoe problem' :) Also just a question, **should Lucas be brought back into the story, or should Zoe be with another character, a OC or just single? Love to hear what you think about that :) **

**Chapter 4**

"Do I really have to wear this suit?" Carter moaned and Jo had to stifle a laugh. Though the situation was serious, she really couldn't help herself. It wasn't so much the full body suit that he was wearing, because she was wearing one too, but more the pouting school boy expression he wore on his face.

They were completing an initial sweep of the underground complex Eva and her brother had worked in and taking measurements of exactly how much of the compound was there that had made Zoe age before their eyes. Jo understood how important it was that the complex be contained. Though they knew how to cure the effects, it was much more logical to prevent the compound ever reaching the water supply.

Allison wore an expression that quite clearly stated that the issue was non-negotiable. "Carter you remember what happened with Zoe when she was infected. I am not prepared to take such a risk with you so you have to wear the suit," she told him firmly. Jo could only imagine what a formidable mother she'd be when Jenna grew up and started bringing boys home and staying out late.

"I was down there for hours with Eva and I was fine. This suit is boiling," he complained. Jo had to sympathise as he pulled at the thick material. Henry and Zane were getting suited up while the three waited together.

It was unusually hot for the time of year but so far Jo merely put it down to global warming. There hadn't been a single sighting of a second sun or anything like last time the temperature had been so out of control. Jo had to count her blessings that it wasn't going to lead to them having to save the world again from a class project gone out of control. And Carter wondered why she hated the school fair so much. Those kids were deadly.

Jo patted Carter's arm and sent him a sympathetic smile "Come on Carter, the last thing you need is to contracted is accelerated ageing. Aren't you already old enough, grandpa?" Jo asked him with a straight face. He pulled a face at her through the plastic mask as Allison laughed. Allison had never let Carter forget how he'd once called her an old brunette.

"Why is it that all the women in my life like to gang up on me? If it isn't you two calling me old, it Ali and Zoe moaning about the toilet seat or it's Jo and Grace criticising my barbecuing skills," Carter moaned and Jo stuck out her lip in a show of fake sympathy remembering all too clearly the afternoon he was mentioning.

"Because it had taken you nearly an hour just to the light the fire and then it was so ineffectual the burgers were one stage away form being put out to pasture. And of course your masculine pride blinded you from seeing that even Fargo was better at it than you," Jo pointed out, remembering exactly how proud Fargo had been at manning the BBQ successfully.

"And," Allison added altering the temperature controls on the two suits as she talked. "We're not ganging up on you, you're just being a baby," she told them finishing the alterations to the suits. Jo sighed in pleasure as she felt the sticky heat of her skin start to dissipate slightly.

Carter stuck his tongue out at them from behind his mask and Jo returned it. Carter was like a big brother and she loved well-meaning teasing. It reminded her of the afternoons she'd spent with her brothers laughing at one another, fishing and eating out by the lake near her town roasting the fish they caught on a roaring fire, when she was growing up.

"Jo, I hope you don't mind the Christening being on Saturday. We wanted to get it out of the way before Eureka is faced with another certain doom situation." Allison asked her and Jo nodded making a mental note to bring the present she'd made to show Grace and Henry when she went to their house for lunch tomorrow. Jo had made a sort of cross between a scrap-book and a time-line/record of Jenna's life's milestone's so far, such as her first word, first smile and first time she held a gun. Foam and chewable but a gun nonetheless, a present from Jo of course. The world always needed a few more kick-ass women in it.

Jo didn't mind helping them plan the Christening on such short notice. She understood how rarely a day went past in Eureka when something didn't require either Carter or Allison's attention. It was just one of the things one had to accept about living in Eureka. Those days had also proved an invaluable life line for Jo when she'd spent all of her free time sitting on the couch in sweats with ice-cream thinking about Zane and feeling sorry for herself. A lack of free time had proved to be a real blessing.

"It's not a problem. It gives me a good excuse to go shopping with Zoe this afternoon." Jo replied. She'd given herself the afternoon off to see her surrogate sister. She felt she deserved it after all the hours she'd put in recently. Plus as soon as Zoe asked her to go shopping Jo couldn't have said no. She wanted to spend as much time with Zoe as she could when she was home and she loved shopping.

"Tell her she isn't allowed anything backless." Carter added and Jo nodded knowing very well that Zoe had her eye of the black, backless number in a store window. Carter would no doubt have a heart attack if she wore It no matter how gorgeous it was. After all Zoe was still his little girl and Jo respected that.

"As much as I hate to disturb your pleasant chit-chat can we please get a move on?" Zane asked as he and Henry walked into the room all suited up and ready to set off. "This suit is hot and I'm experiencing chaffing in some rather intimate areas."

XOX

"Well that's definitely a crack," Zane told the group behind him. He bent down to inspect the floor that sat directly above the town's water supply. It had been the first place they'd visited, careful to avoid any purple, radioactive material on the way.

Carter held a a 3D image of the complex in his hands. It had been recently comprised through 3D imaging but it was merely for Zane's sake. Carter knew exactly where he was going after all. Being guided through a secret underground complex where the first atomic bomb was made by a 107 year-old woman was an experience that a person tended to remember.

Henry bent down to have a look at where Zane was pointing. The two were perched on the side of the storage tank that still held some of the water supplies that had serviced the underground complex when it had been in use . Jo followed the two men with her eyes. Though the crack was no-where near as sizeable as the cracks that had been created by the Instantanium when Eva Thorne had tried to seal the complex, it had still definitely grown since the first initial pictures had been taken.

"Can you tell how fast it's growing?" Allison asked them across the radio comm link. Jo watched as Henry and Zane went about preparing equipment and then using it to measure the width and depth of the crack from a safe distance. The two men looked over the results and had a quick, hushed discussion before replying to Allison.

"The crack isn't deep enough to breech the bottom of the storage tank but it is definitely growing in size. With this data Zane can compare it to the first initial measurements and estimate the time it will take for the crack to deepen to be successfully able to breech the storage tank and contaminate the town's water supply." Henry explained to her and Fargo, who was also listening to the team's findings on the radio link.

"So we still have time to decontaminate the complex and stop any radiation from leaking into the water supply?" Carter asked. Henry nodded and stood up with Zane as the two men gathered their equipment together.

Zane began tapping on the tiny, portable computer that everyone in Eureka seemed to never be without ."I'm running the data now, it shouldn't take long to find out exactly how much time we have left. Of course it's just an estimation, I can't add in every possible factor that could effect the foundation of the complex."

Henry filled a container with the water and screwed the lid on tightly as to ensure that there would be no leakage in the transport to his lab. "I'll take a fresh sample and tell you exactly how much of the radioactive compound there is in the water. From that I should be able to tell how far the compound will spread at a dangerous level and exactly how quickly people will be affected if it does contaminate the water supply."

"Do we know how the storage tank was damaged?" Fargo asked them

"As far as we can tell it was most likely from the miniature earthquakes the town experienced due to the magma pocket that developed underneath due to the illegal diamond farming. The cracks were most likely minuscule when they initially developed however the tank is structurally weak after seventy years of neglect so the cracks have been able to worsen over the last year," Henry explained to Allison and Fargo. Jo was surprised that yet another event that had happened in her time-line had happened here. It was yet another reminder how exactly how similar the time-lines actually were.

"So cross fingers no more earthquakes or logic diamond farms," Carter noted and Jo knew that within Eureka it wasn't impossible that within the next week the town wouldn't be plagued by earthquakes. Nothing was impossible or out of the question in Eureka.

"So what's the plan if the water supply is contaminated?" Zane asked. Henry grinned at him gesturing for Zane to follow him to another room.

Jo swept her eyes over the bomb surprised that something so small could wipe away millions of lives. She would always serve her country but her stance on weapons capable of wiping out entire civilisations was far more complicated. She could appreciate the need for nuclear weapons but after seeing the devastation they could ravage she hated the need for them.

Zane looked somewhat disbelieving and bent down to closer inspect the weapon. Henry handed him the notebooks detailing it's design and conception. Zane had never known Eva, not like they had. In this time-line she had never been sent to Eureka and they were still unaware of her current location or if in this reality she'd become to the same rapid ageing as her brother. So unlike them Zane had no idea of the legacy he was currently holding in his hands, a band of brave, great men's attempts at righting their wrongs and saving others.

"The men who created this complex created the first atomic bomb using radioactive material from meteorites. The weapon however created bariogenic radiation leading to the creation of the element that caused the rapid ageing that killed them. They spent their last days trying to neutralise the element and this bomb was the solution." Henry explained as Zane flicked through the notebook that he'd been handed.

"So the bomb releases non-bariogenic radiation? To counter the effects of the rapid ageing?" Zane asked. Henry nodded as Zane continued to inspect the bomb with the eager excitement of a child being given a new toy to play with.

"And so therefore if worst comes to worst and the water supply is contaminated then we need you to ensure that bomb is in working order and available to deploy as soon the contamination is detected." Henry finished and Zane nodded, no doubt already planning how to best achieve his goal.

"See why we need you on the team Zane?" Allison asked him over the radio link. Zane nodded, a bright smile covering his face. That particular smile that Jo would have a few weeks ago considered unbearably smug. But now she could see was it wasn't smugness or inflated ego but more just a confidence in his abilities, a confidence that was not unfounded. He caught her eye and smiled. She quickly looked away.

"Don't worry captain, you can count on me."

XOX

Zane looked up from his desk to see Fargo standing next to it with a nervous smile on his face. Zane frowned knowing that as Head of GD, Fargo probably had lots of work to do. He'd never envied the position, he was far too laid back to ever be in charge. Even so Zane had his own work to do; reading through the blue prints to the bomb underneath Eureka. He cleared his throat.

"Can I help you Fargo?" Zane asked him. Fargo was jolted out of his thoughts by the sound of Zane's voice. His hands were linked together but Zane could see them twitching restlessly.

"Umm, I was just wondering if you had the data on the crack in the storage pool for me?" Fargo asked him and Zane couldn't help but be even more confused by his boss' strange behaviour.

"I had a copy sent to your desk an hour ago" He said. Fargo let out an embarrassed laugh and reached a hand to the back of his head but still didn't make a move to retrieve the report or ask Zane for a summary of his findings. It was clear that cracks and potential radioactive leaks were the last thing on his mind. "Fargo, do you need something else?" he asked. As if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders Fargo let out a large sigh of relief and all but fell into the chair opposite to Zane.

"I have a date." Fargo explained and Zane leaned across the desk to pat him on the back.

"Well done." Zane couldn't help but notice that Fargo looked more like he just delivered the news that his aunt had died rather than he had a date. "You don't look very happy about it."

Fargo looked up at him "I'm just going to mess it up. I always do. I'm socially awkward and I'll end up saying something retarded and Claudia will just laugh at me. Women always do." He explained sadly. Zane had to control his laughter. It was cruel but he'd have never guessed that Fargo would have chosen him as some sort of dating coach. Perhaps the two of them had been better friends than they were currently in the alternate reality or where ever they had come from. But he'd do his best.

"Look, I saw the two of you together and how well you got on. She agreed to go out with you after she'd spent a large quantity of time with you so that's a good sign." Fargo's expression turned both sheepish and embarrassed.

"Actually she asked me." Fargo confessed and bowed his head in shame. Zane frowned at his reaction not understanding why he was viewing that as such a bad thing.

"So? That means that she really wants to go on a date with you if she asked. When are the two of you going out?" Zane asked him wondering when he'd ever qualified, with his one long-term relationship that had ended disastrously, to give anyone even Fargo relationship advice.

"She's been invited to the Christening on Saturday and she asked if I wanted to grab some food afterwards," Fargo explained "But I just know that it'll be a disaster. I always am with women."

"It's simple. Be a gentleman and be yourself. She likes you for you so don't go trying to be someone else to impress her. Never works and even if it does it would never work for the long term. Take her a gift something personal, something that shows you've been thinking about her since she asked you to meet her. Just don't try to hard because then it won't go well, she wants to spend time with you so let her do that," Zane instructed him trying to fight off the image of taking Jo on a date, and fixed Fargo with a firm stare. "Just don't over-do it. Be keen but not too keen. Women don't like their date's to look as if their just grateful that a woman's giving them any time at all. Trust me."

Fargo paused for a moment and then sent him a grateful and relieved smile. "That actually makes a lot of sense, though I'm going to have to think of what to buy her. Thank you Zane." Zane flashed him a bright grin which was quickly wiped away by Fargo's next question. "Who are you taking as your date to the Christening?"

Zane thought for a moment though he knew exactly who he'd take. But there was no way Jo would go with him alternate reality proposal or not. As she said they were just friends and he wasn't sure if she'd want to be his friend when he finally talked to Zoe. Which was unfortunate as it was Jo that was all he could think about.

"I don't know. I guess I'll just go on my own." Zane answered. Fargo tried and failed to hide his pride that he had a date while the notorious womaniser would be going alone. But he quickly focused back on Zane and probably because he felt he owed him something, proceeded to try and give him advice.

"Why don't you ask Jo?" Fargo suggested. Zane forcefully kept all traces of emotion off of his face. Though it seemed everyone could recognise his changing feelings for Jo he didn't want to broadcast them. Especially when they all probably knew that Jo had been all but engaged to his superior, alternate self.

"Me and Jo are just friends Fargo." Zane reminded him, though he wasn't too sure of exactly who he was reminding of the fact – Fargo or his over-active, Jo Lupo focused imagination.

Fargo fixed him with an uncomfortably perceptive stare "Are you really nothing more than friends?" he asked. Zane had to look away from his questioning stare, worried that Fargo would see through him and to the fact of his changing emotions, the truth he'd gained from the photo, the kiss they'd shared and the one they almost had.

Zane couldn't think of a reply. His silence said everything.

XOX

"Come on old man, is that the best you can do?" Jo demanded as she studied the shot that Carter had just taken. She quickly pressed the button and had the target sheet brought to them so she could inspect the hole he'd just made. It was on the outer ring, no where near the middle.

"Not all of us can graduate first from our class at West point Josefina," he retorted and she shrugged. It was true after all. Carter had admitted that she was far better than him when he'd let her take the shot at Fargo's heart when he'd been encased in the personal force field several years ago. It didn't mean however that she couldn't tease him about it though.

"And to think they placed a lousy shot like you as Sheriff when they could have had me." She told him with a sigh. Carter ruffled her hair and pushed her slightly off balance. Carter was the only person, apart from her dad, who was allowed to ruffle her hair without loosing a hand. Just another piece of proof of exactly how much she respected him.

"Aww Jo, you can't knock perfection like this," he told her gesturing to himself as he moved a hand up and down the space just in front of his body. Jo snorted as she gathered up the guns that she'd been using that afternoon. Jo had in fact seen Carter naked, thanks to getting himself doused in radiative waste, and though she would never admit it he didn't have a bad body. But she could happily live with never seeing him naked again regardless.

The two of them got started on packing their guns away so that Jo could be on time to meet Zoe to go shopping. They had had a free hour after they had gotten out of the underground complex and Jo had appreciated the chance to blow off some steam. She'd been spending more time with Zane over the last week since they'd decided to be friends. Drinks here, dinner there and it was forcing her to constantly re-evaluate her opinion of and her relationship with this Zane. And she didn't like what she was seeing.

She wasn't just starting to like this Zane but she looked forward to seeing him, craved spending time with him and it wasn't helping her resolution to get over him in the least. And all she could feel was annoyed at herself for falling for this Zane and guilt for doing this to Zoe. Though technically they hadn't done anything since that afternoon in the Sheriff's Office, she still felt riddled with guilt. It was perhaps the reason she couldn't wait to treat Zoe to an expensive designer dress this afternoon.

"You, umm, and Zane have been spending a lot of time together." Carter said suddenly and Jo quickly turned to look at him. She saw how uncomfortable he was and knew that Allison had put him up to talking to her. In a way she felt sorry for him, as he was obviously uncomfortable, but on the other hand, also annoyed because she didn't particularly want to talk about Zane. "Which is very good cause I think Zoe's cooling on the whole idea of her and Zane."

"Carter, Zane isn't going to take advantage of her any more. I think he realised he was taking it all a bit far," Jo explained, wondering why she was so quick to defend Zane when his actions with Zoe made her want to punch him in the face for being such a bastard.

"Good. I'm not saying he's a bad guy but he's far too old for her. And then there's you..." Carter replied and Jo stared at him wondering if Carter knew exactly how involved she was with this Zane now. She hadn't even told Allison about the kiss and the night he'd spent looking after her.

"We're just friends" Jo quickly replied and she could hear the defensive tones in her own voice. She was only making herself look as guilty as she'd been feeling over the last week.

"I'd believe that if I didn't keep catching the glances that the two of you send each other when you think no one else is looking. I'm not that unobservant Jo," he told her and she knew she'd have to quickly cut him off before falling into another deep conversation about herself and Zane like she had with Allison. And the best way to do that was with Allison.

"Like the looks you used to send Allison when you thought her and Stark weren't looking? I am really happy for you two. It took you long enough to get you act together and ask her out." Jo commented back and she felt relief wash over her at the contented smile that spread across his face.

"Thanks. And you know the best things come to those who wait," he replied and Jo was content that he'd been successfully disarmed. "I know you probably don't agree but I actually wouldn't change the time-line shift. I haven't been this happy since I first married my ex-wife. Being with Allison, Jenna, Kevin and Zoe it's like I've been given a second chance at having a family and with all of you. I can't help but be grateful for that."

Jo looked down, trying her best to put a bright smile on her face. "Carter, don't worry about me. I'm happy." He didn't look convinced, though if the roles were reversed she wouldn't have been convinced by her act either. "I have all of you and it makes me happy to see you and Allison so happy, and Grace and Henry. I mean even Fargo has a sort-of girlfriend here."

"Jo it's okay not to be perfect and happy all the time. No one would argue that you didn't get the worst deal out of this. And no-one would expect you just to stop loving Zane," Carter told her softly and she found that she couldn't look at him. If she did she'd just break down and admit everything to him. "Me and Ali just want you to be as happy as us."

Jo cleared her throat and stood up slinging her gun case over her shoulder and smoothing her suit. "Shall we get going? I have to meet Zoe." Carter nodded getting up as well, though he obviously knew she was just avoiding the conversation.

As the two of them made their way to the exit Carter wrapped an arm briefly around her shoulder and gave her a quick squeeze. "You know how much I care about you, don't you Jo?" he asked and just like when she'd be asked to be Jenna's godmother she felt tears filling her eyes. She quickly blinked them away and elbowed ever so lightly in the side

"And I care about you too you sentimental old man."

XOX

Zane expected to see Fargo at his door when he heard someone knock; no doubt hankering after some more relationship advice. But when he looked up from the blue prints he'd enlarged and was pouring up he was surprised to see Zoe before remembering he'd left her a message to come and talk to him when she could.

And even though he'd had a week to prepare he still wasn't ready for this particular conversation.

"So what was so important that I had to come and see you at work?" Zoe ask him and he could still see the ice in her face. Zoe hadn't forgiven him for pushing her away and he had no idea when she'd actually start talking to him again after he'd told her they had to end whatever was going on between them.

"Zoe can you sit down? We need to talk," he said. She sat down opposite him, crossing her arms over her chest and staring at him.

"So talk." He took a deep breath, wishing he was anywhere else but here in his office having to get himself out of the hole he dug with Zoe. He'd promise Jo and Grace that he wouldn't hurt her more than he had too so that would be what he'd do.

"Zoe I think you're great and I really like spending time with you. But I don't think us having a relationship is a good idea. There's the age gap and if you're spending time with me you can't fix things with Lucas. And the two of you were great together. Zoe I'm so sorry but I think we should stay friends. The last thing that I want to do is hurt you and loose you as a friend for good," Zane explained feeling more and more like an incorrigible bastard with every word.

Zoe was silent and then fury filled her face. "You're DUMPING ME?" Zoe shouted at him and he hoped that his office was as sound proof as he'd been assured.

"Well technically we aren't dating," he told her but he realised that he'd said the wrong thing as he saw her eyes widen ever more in anger. Though he had to admit he could handle anger better than he could handle tears. Upset women had never been his forte and he left a long trail of them in his dating history.

"Who is she?" Zoe demanded from him her voice low and controlled. Zane was momentarily confused.

"What?" he asked her, a frown on his face though if it were possible Zoe had started to seem even more angry. She was pursing her lips so tightly together that they were slowly turning white as her nails dug into the arms of the chair she was sat in.

"Well there must be someone else Zane. You liked me and you can't pretend that you didn't. And now you just want us to be friends? So tell me, who is she? Who have you met that's so much better than me?" she asked him and he recoiled from the hatred in her voice. He would in that moments preferred that she were screaming at him.

"There isn't anyone else Zoe," he assured her but he knew he was lying. Of course there was someone else but how could he explain the situation between Jo and himself to her? He wasn't entirely lying, he wasn't leaving her for Jo. He couldn't have a relationship with _anyone _until he figured this whole thing with Jo and the entire alternate reality. But then again he couldn't deny that he wanted to be around Jo, that he wanted to make her happy and to kiss her. But he would never tell Zoe that because he cared about her and that would just hurt her far more than was necessary.

"My dad warned me, told me you were too old. I'd watched you myself dating girl after girl but I'd honestly thought that you'd changed. I really had. I guess you're just the selfish jerk you always were. God, Jo was right about you," she told him and he could see tears beginning to brim in her eyes and he had to look away. He'd done this to her and he felt like the biggest jerk in the world.

"Zoe you're one of my closest friends. I really care about you and I hate that I let this go so far and ended up hurting you Zoe. I'm so sorry." As he speak he could see the first tear start to make it's way down her cheek.

She stood up and fixed him with a tear filled gaze. "Zane you aren't my friend," she informed him. She then turned her back on him and walked out leaving Zane to think over what he'd just done.

He really was a selfish jerk. No wonder Jo had hated him so much. Things had to change but first he needed to talk to Jo.

XOX

"I HATE men!" was the first thing out of Zoe's mouth as she walked up to Jo. She was waiting for her outside the dress shop and it didn't take her long to figure out that Zoe had been crying. It seemed like Zane had finally ended things with Zoe and as usual Jo was yet again cleaning up Zane Donovan's mess. Just like she'd been doing barley less than a week before.

"Aww sweetie." Jo sighed and wrapped the younger blonde in her arms. Zoe didn't start to cry again but buried her face in Jo's chest. Jo stroke a hand through her hair remembering her own younger days and those first few heartbreaks. Everything had been so more painful and devastating when amplified by youth.

"Zane dumped me." Zoe explained, her voice muffled by Jo's shirt. Though it hadn't been hard for Jo to guess what had upset Zoe so much, especially as Zane himself had told her that he was planning in breaking things off before they got more serious.

"Honey it's probably for the best. Zane isn't good enough for you. You can do so much better than him, you're so beautiful and lovely. There's someone amazing out there for you Zoe." Jo assured her as Zoe pulled away from her. Jo brushed a strand of tear soaked blonde hair behind her ear. Jo wished she'd had an older sister to talk to when she'd been younger and in the same situation rather than her brothers who'd given her a beer and taken her hunting. And people wondered why she ended up the way she was.

Zoe nodded and rubbed the last traces of tears from his face "I'm just humiliated because I honestly thought that he liked me. But I know I'm hot. His loss right?" Zoe asked her smiling but Jo recognised the smile of a woman trying her hardest to pretend to be happy and upbeat.

"Definitely. Zoe, don't be humiliated or beat yourself up about this. This is totally Zane's issues. But now maybe you can call Lucas?" Jo suggested tentatively but she was unable to read Zoe's reaction because she'd turned her face away from her. As far as Jo could tell Zoe and Lucas were on a 'break'. But that seemed like a roundabout way of saying they were just burying their problems and ignoring them.

"I know I need to talk to him but I just don't know what to say. Things changed so much when we went to college. It's hard when you're always trying to find time to talk around both our classes and when we did talk we just ended up snapping at each other. It wasn't fun any more." Jo sighed remembering her first love and real relationship that had been consumed by their careers in the Special Forces and Army Rangers respectively even though they'd known each other all their lives. While in reality it hadn't been that simple, it was essentially the same problem.

"You knew things weren't going to be easy. Living apart never is. But you do need to talk to him Zoe. Tell him how you've been feeling and see how he feels. You two were great together and if you do just carrying on ignoring this and leaving things unresolved you won't have a relationship to salvage even if you wanted too," Jo explained, hoping that the advice she was giving made sense. She'd never had much need before she'd met Zoe to give female advice. People had only really asked her things such as how best to clean their guns. The closest she'd ever come to things like this before Zoe came to Eureka was when she'd taught the self defence class for female staff at GD.

"But how could I tell him about Zane? Things with Zane were suppose to be simple but that didn't work," Zoe said sadly. Jo wrapped an arm around her shoulder. She'd do anything to make Zoe feel better but that involved talking to Lucas. Though Zoe would never say it, Jo could see how much she missed him and how miserable the stalemate between them was making her. This with Zane was only adding fuel to an already burning fire.

"You just need to tell him the truth. He doesn't deserve to be lied too." Jo paused for a moment and studied the younger woman. "Was that why you wanted to date Zane, because it was fun?" Jo asked. Zoe shrugged before answering.

"At first yeah but I really started to like him, Jo. Being with him was like it was with Lucas in the beginning. It made me happy and he made me laugh. I just loved being with him." Jo could tell she was once more on the verge of tears so she tightened her arm around her.

Jo needed to change the subject, not only to save Zoe any more tears but also because she couldn't hear how happy Zane had made Zoe because it could have been her talking about Zane at one time. And she was quite eager to ignore how happy and how much the new Zane made her laugh recently. Zoe needed her support and she had to give it to her. She couldn't afford to be dwelling on her Zane, feeling sorry for herself and then feeling guilty over her relationship with the new one. Zoe had come to her for help and Jo was damn well going to give it to her regardless of her own jumbled emotions.

"Do you really want to go shopping or do you want me to by use ice-cream and go back to my place, relax on the couch and watch movies? I'll even pick ones with lots of shooting, perfect to cheer you up after something like this," Jo asked her but Zoe shook her head and sent her the brightest smile she could muster, wiping a hand across her eyes to brush away any stray moisture.

"No. I want to go shopping and get a hot dress for Saturday so I can show Zane exactly what he's missing out on." Zoe told her. At that thought Jo swore she could see a little bit more animation in her eyes. Zoe opened the shop door and Jo followed her in.

Zoe, as predicted, when straight for the backless black number but Jo quickly shook her head. "No. I know you've been hurt but you have no idea how much your dad would hurt me if I bought you that dress."

Zoe rolled her eyes and handed the hanger over to Jo. "It isn't for me. You should try it on; it'll look so cute on you"

Jo took it and held it for a moment. The Christening was only three days away but could she really work up the courage in those days to wear something like that? She loved dresses but she'd never been one for revealing dresses and this was _very _revealing. Zoe tilted her head towards the changing rooms before heading towards the racks herself. Jo closed the curtain behind her and slowly undressed slipping the black dress over her head.

Zoe was right. It looked good. It fitted her perfectly and flowed over her curves and while it was revealing it wasn't sluttish. But still, could she really wear that in front of people, in front of Zane? She stepped out and Zoe was waiting for her. Zoe herself looked beautiful in a red dress with a fitted top and a floaty net skirt that rested just above her knees. As she saw Jo Zoe grinned pointing to a mirror.

"Jo, you look hot," Zoe commented coming to stand next to her.

"You look beautiful." Jo told her and meant it even with her red-rimmed eyes. Next to Zoe Jo felt incredibly uncomfortable and wanted nothing more than to get changed.

"I know. This will teach Zane Donovan to dump me," Zoe stated happily and if sensing Jo's thoughts turned to her "You are not putting that back. It's looks amazing." Zoe assured her and Jo knew there was no point arguing with a determined Zoe Carter.

So Jo relented buying both the black and the red dress, even though she knew she had to wear the dress at home to get used to it before stepping out in public. After buying the dresses Jo took Zoe to Café Diem to get ice cream and lunch. Inside the two women sat down to eat their meals and Jo couldn't help but apologise to Zoe even though Zoe was entirely oblivious to Jo's part in Zane's choice to end things between them.

"Zoe, I am really sorry that things didn't work out between you and Zane. If you need me you can come and stay at my place tonight and we can have a girl night." Jo told her and Zoe smiled at her swallowing the mouthful of ice-cream she had before replying.

"Thanks Jo, I'm so glad I have you to look out for me. I don't know what I'd do without you." Zoe hugged Jo briefly before returning to her ice-cream. Jo felt like pulling at her hair and crying as yet more waves of guilt covered her like thick blanket. How could she do this to Zoe? She had to tell her the truth but she couldn't, she was too selfish. She'd lost Zane and so she couldn't loose Zoe.

But how could she live with the guilt that consumed her especially when deep down she couldn't help but feel some happiness and relief underneath the anger and sadness that Zane had chosen to end things with Zoe. And Jo despised herself for it.

XOX

"So you're the one who I have to thank for the sobbing, angry teenager I was delivered this afternoon," Jo commented. Zane looked up from the new site he'd been reading on his PDA to see her standing next to him hands on her hips, eyebrows raised but a hint of a smile on her face. He let out a relieved sigh before moving the bag off of the seat next to him so she could sit down. She didn't look so mad that she'd inflict any pain on him any time soon.

"I did my best not to hurt her any more than I had to as promised. I just wish that I'd never been such an idiot and used her like that. Zoe's a great girl and the last thing I ever wanted to do was what I did to her this afternoon." Zane explained to her as Jo accepted the drink Vincent passed her.

"Well that shows just how much of an idiot you are. How did you think it was going to end? Men!" Jo rolled her eyes and Zane nudged her with his shoulder, pouting his lip and furrowing his brow in a mock look of outrage on behalf of his gender.

"Look I agree that I'm a complete and total idiot. I should have never taken advantage of Zoe but I did as you and Grace told me, I ended it as soon as I realised that we wanted different things. I could have let it carry on for longer to avoid the whole unpleasant scene this afternoon but I couldn't do that to Zoe. Would she really have been happy with a boyfriend who'd only started dating her because he didn't want to end things and hurt her?" Zane asked her and it was only as she downed her drink in once swift motion and turned to him he realised that she was drinking Ouzo.

"I'm not mad at you Zane. Well I am but not for ending things with Zoe. She didn't deserve to be strung along, she deserves someone who loves her rather than someone whose only with her for an easy life. Is there any chance we can just have a quiet drink? Thanks to you my relaxing shopping afternoon was everything but relaxing." Zane felt guilty that he'd caused problems for Jo to deal with.

"Well I'll get you a drink to make up for it," Zane said looking at the empty shot glass by her hands. He was suddenly hit by an idea "Hey, want to have some fun?" he asked her. She raised her eyebrows as high as she possibly could.

"I am not getting naked. Not in public and before you ask, not in private either," she told him with a serious tone and he laughed at the idea of Jo suddenly just getting naked in the middle of Cafe Diem. Though he couldn't help but want to see her naked, he wasn't too keen on everyone else seeing her naked as well.

"I was thinking more of playing a game, like truth and dare but we each get to ask the other any questions we want." He quickly saw the alarm on her face and sought to calm her fears. After all as much as he wanted to know how Jo had hopped dimensions he also wanted to know about her and her background "and I promise I won't ask anything I've already asked you previously so you don't need to get all defensive again."

Jo thought it over for a long moment and then twitched the corner of her mouth into a small smile "Get some drinks then. I'm not doing this sober." He grinned getting Vincent to bring them over several rounds of shots which they downed in quick succession, ouzo for her and whiskey for him and he couldn't help but smile at the look of pride on her face when she finished hers before him.

She fixed him with a solid stare. "Guess I'll start. How many women have you actually dated?" she asked him and he felt almost like recoiling from her words. Jo wasn't messing around.

"Ouch Jo, tough question. Women I've go on a few dates with? Quite a lot. Women I've actually dated? That would be one," He told her and he could tell from the suddenly intrigued expression on her face that she wanted to know more but it wasn't her turn. Either her Zane had had a different past to him, which was of course possible, or hadn't been much of a sharer when it came to his past "My turn. Did you always want to be a kick-ass ranger?"

She looked briefly sad before looking back to him "No. Until I was thirteen I wanted to be a ballet dancer. I could have been to, I'd won a early scholarship to the American School of Ballet. But I went to West Point. End of story." Jo said and Zane didn't for a moment believe that that was all the explanation as to why Jo had so changed the path of her future from Ballet to Guns but it was her turn. "Why did things end with girl you were dating?"

He thought for a moment, careful to keep his mood and tone light. "We wanted different things. As you know I didn't flourish in the school environment and I was never going to be the picture perfect husband. You know me, trouble has a habit of following me where ever I go. In the end she wanted this perfect life with the high flying career, which she has now incidentally, and she couldn't become a federal judge by the time she was 30 with a delinquent, drop-out fraudster with a criminal record for a husband. So it was me or her career and I guess I wasn't number one choice," he explained to her and for the first time talking about it didn't bring up a vaguely hollow pain in his chest.

"Why did you quit ballet?" he asked her hoping he'd satisfied her curiosity over his past dating habits for now, even though he felt somewhat guilty over lying to her. Things hadn't been that simple but this was supposed to be fun and he didn't want to bore Jo to death.

"My mom killed herself and after that I didn't get much support on the ballet front from an all male household. I didn't want to carry on any way not without her." Jo told him and Zane had no idea what to say to her. Her gaze remained level, even though he couldn't help but want to hold her after such an confession. But she didn't even falter. "Most entertaining sexual fantasy?"

Zane was shocked at the quick turn of tone but it didn't take a genius to realise she wanted off the topic of ballet and her mom even though he was a genius. He grinned at her, "Wonder Woman. you know with the whole sexy, strong ass-kicking Amazonian vibe she had going on. I kinda always wanted to be lassoed and restrained by her though trust me suggesting to a girl to dress up and try and lasso a naked, drunk man as he pretends to rob your house and punish him Lynda Carter style doesn't go down too well." Jo laughed at him much as his girlfriend had done at the time but she'd been honest with him even though as far as sexual fantasies went it wasn't that bad, at least he didn't want anyone to dress up as a gorilla and then lick his toes or anything. "Most inappropriate sex dream" he asked her and she handed him another handful of shots that Vincent had brought them hopefully after the naked lassoing admission.

Jo downed her drinks and then grinned at him and he could see a shy turn in her lips but he'd never seen Jo back down from a challenge whether that be fireballs raining from the sky or a silly, drunken game of twenty questions "I had a dream about Allison once and no, I am not going into details so nip that question in the bud mister. I'd been watching a lot of television and the L Word so I blame that." Jo explained and Zane was once again left speechless by her candid honesty. Allison and Jo? Woah, part of his body was way too interested in that. "How did you loose your virginity and how old were you?" she asked him and for the first time Zane was tempted not to answer. Everyone expected him to have been a womaniser since he was a teenager but that was sadly not the case.

But then she'd just told him about her sex dream about Allison, how could he chicken out after that and not loose any respect she had for him? The answer was he couldn't so he had to answer her as embarrassing as it was "We'd known each other since we were kids but we lost touch when I went to MIT. We met up again when I went home after the last time I was expelled and she took pity on me. I hadn't had a girlfriend or even a date and she felt sorry for me. So that was how I lost my virginity through a pity hook-up. How did it go? Terrible but then again not that terrible as it some how led her to date me for quite a long time. My age? I was twenty. Not what you expected from the serial womaniser huh?" he asked her and she shook her head and Zane couldn't help but hope that perhaps after this she wouldn't see him as so much of a serial bastard to women as she'd always accused him of being "And you?"

She turned her head to the side and thought for a moment "It's very cliché. I was an angry sixteen year-old and he was the school quarter-back who'd had a lot of wine coolers with him. It was a stupid mistake and the worse thing about it? He wouldn't even look at me in the corridors the day after, I guess I wasn't cool enough," she answered and Zane was dumbfounded. How could anyone not be proud to even be allowed to touch Jo Lupo let alone have sex with her? Like most quarter-backs the guy was a jerk and an idiot. And perhaps blind as well "Why didn't you have a date till you were twenty?" she asked him and Zane cursed the evil grin she had on her face. At least his mother wasn't here, she'd have just shown her a picture of him aged twenty as explanation.

"Ever seen an over-weight twenty year-old guy with braces, acne, back acne and a Star Trek bedroom who was also fluent in Klingon? Thought not but trust me if you had you wouldn't have been queuing up to date him either," he explained as she tried, and failed, to hide her giggles behind her hands as she all but had to clutch her sides in laughter at his answer. She was getting drunk but so was he or he wouldn't have been this honest. That would be what ten or so shots did to a person as Jo had kept a steady stream of alcohol obviously too embarrassed to continue with the game without it. At least he was sober enough to withhold the information that at his mom's house he still had the same Star Trek décor in his room or that he was still a fluent speaker. She would never let him live that one down "Most interesting place you've ever had sex?"

She pondered for a moment before settling on an answer "In a tank. In enemy territory. While surrounded by hostiles," she answered and Zane laughed. Only Jo would have that particular answer but though he had had several unsettling dreams about her recently involving her, the cell where'd he'd first met her (or her desk. It was interchangeable), handcuffs and a Wonder Woman costume. Not quite a tank but near enough. Not that it would ever become a reality. "What would you like your perfect woman to be like?" she asked him studying his face.

He thought about it for a moment. The question was surprisingly easy, he'd heard so many other people describe the attributes they wanted in a woman; smart, beautiful, funny and caring. But not a single word of the answers he'd heard over the years left his mouth, instead he'd regretted his answer as soon as it had left his mouth. "You."

For a moment Jo didn't move or say anything and then suddenly what he'd said dawned on her and Zane felt like slapping himself. He had vowed not to let Jo know how confused he was and about his changing feelings towards her, not when he'd been involved with Zoe and Jo had been in love with an obviously superior version of himself and only wanted to be his friend in this reality. He blamed it on the alcohol even though he'd already proved himself a world class idiot.

Jo stood up quickly and she swayed for a moment on the spot but quickly steadied herself and grabbed her coat looking anywhere but at him. "I, umm, have to go. Nice to see you Zane," she told him quickly. He stood up as well, realising that he was more drunk than he'd realised even after his admission.

"Jo you don't have to leave," he told her trying to think of a way in his head to take back what he'd said or even just brush it away as a drunk comment. The last thing he wanted her to do was to stop being his friend, because then she'd never trust him and he'd never know the truth. Though in that moment he was more concerned with her no longer trusting him than loosing the answers he'd been so determined to find before he'd really gotten to know this Jo.

She was already walking away from him towards the door "I'm sorry Zane. I'll see you around." she replied hurriedly and with that she gone. Zane all but slammed his forehead down into the counter cursing himself and his stupidity.

"Well that didn't seem to end well," Vincent noted and Zane looked up from the counter top to see him watching the door that Jo had just eagerly ran out of. "What did you do this time?" Vincent asked him and Zane sighed watching the dark silhouette of Jo entirely disappear into the shadows of the street.

"I think I might have just made the most hugely idiotic mistake ever." Zane answered wondering how he'd so easily shown to her how his feelings had changed when hers towards him had obviously not changed to that great of a degree. He couldn't be her version of him and so she'd never want him. She wanted the other him and he couldn't change that as much as he hated the fact. Zane was jealous of himself as stupid as it was.

"Any ideas how to fix whatever you've done to upset her like that?" Vincent asked but Zane merely shook his head no, turning his gaze away from the door and to Vincent's face.

"Honestly Vincent? I have no idea." Zane admitted. Vincent sighed and thought over the predicament that Zane and his big mouth had gotten him into this time.

"Well I do hope you two kiss and make up soon" Vincent replied and Zane grinned suddenly knowing exactly what he was going to do. Just like Vincent said, kiss and make-up. Hopefully literally.

"Vincent you're a genius. That's the best idea I've heard in ages."


	5. Chapter 5

_Hey :] _

_So this is the next chapter, and yes it's quite evil and mean, but I needed to give Jo a swift kick up the ass to see what was in front of her! Plus as they say the course of true love never ran smooth, etc etc. So please don't hate me too much, please? _

_Thank you for all the song ideas, as many as possible will be used in a slightly more light hearted chapter soon :] However it may be longer to update the next chapter as I have three interviews for University, and training days, and volunteering so it's all a bit hectic here at the moment! But I promise not to take too long! _

_A huuuge thank you to __**RyaJynx **__for beta'ing this for me, and to __**Clarinetto14**__ for the last chapter. I am useless without their help! _

_And a bug thank you to everyone who reviewed, you made my week as per usual! So thank you to __**Justwriter2, bassbella, AllyrienDM, RyaJynx, Amaira Spark**__ and __**ashipper2. **__You guys are the best :] _

_So please enjoy this chapter and I will try the hardest to have the next one for you next week. Promise. _

**Chapter 5**

"We couldn't have one day, just one day," Allison said with a deep sigh and Jo understood her pain. It was the day of Jenna's christening and Henry had just delivered less than welcome news to the group gathered in his shop. Jo had been wrestling with trying to get a pair of tights on without getting a run them when she'd received Henry's call asking them to get to his shop as soon as possible.

"So people are hallucinating and we aren't sure why?" Fargo asked. Henry nodded moving around stacks of paper work on his desk until he found what he was looking for. Handing over the paper Jo peered over his shoulder to see what was written on it. It was a record of a list of incidents that had occurred over the last few weeks.

"So the basic theme running though each of the hallucinations is that the person sees, and is seemingly threatened by, the very thing they fear most?" Jo asked as her eyes skimmed over the list as quickly as possible. She was quite aware of the people who would soon be arriving for the christening which would be hard pushed to proceed seeing as the parents and all of the god-parents were gathered in Henry's lab.

"Yep," Henry confirmed "As you can see, two scientists at GD basically destroyed their labs in the last two weeks. One said that his lab was on fire and he was unable to get out and was trying to smash an escape route through the window, the other swore blind there had been over-sized tarantulas advancing on him. Another scientist was found all but tearing away her own skin absolutely convinced that her skin was crawling was poisonous fire ants. You can see why this is concerning and as you can see from this list it isn't just isolated to these three incidents." Henry finished explaining to them and Jo shuddered hoping that whatever was affecting people would manage to pass her by.

"But why did you have to tell us this now?" Allison asked and Jo had to admit she had a point. All of these incidents had occurred at least two days previous and so it seemed unfair to ruin Jenna's christening by making Carter and Allison worry but Jo knew Henry, there had to be a reason why he'd chosen to tell them then. He wouldn't have purposely ruined the day for two of his closest friends.

It was Fargo this time that stepped forward and chose to answer, looking somewhat awkward in a black suit and tie ."It was me who told Henry to tell you what had been happening. This morning one of the lab techs from the non-lethal weapons lab was found dead. There hasn't been an autopsy yet obviously but from initial findings it seemed she drowned in the middle of her lab without a single water source being present." Fargo explained to them and Jo found the realisation of how serious this new predicament actually was settle on her shoulders. She was head of security and it was her job to keep the employees of GD safe. And she had just failed.

"Let me guess," Carter asked him looking up from the record of incidents that he was holding in his hand, "She was scared of drowning?"

Henry sighed and closed his eyes briefly before looking back at Allison. "Yes. Apparently according to her college she'd been scared of the water since she'd nearly drowned as a child. These occurrences have only just begun happening in such a large volume over the last few days. I didn't want to worry you but after the fatality this morning, I had to make everyone aware of what was happening. Whatever this thing is, it's getting serious."

The room was silent for a moment as everyone thought over what they'd just been told. Jo had learnt since coming to Eureka that nothing was impossible and that anything that could happen probably would happen at some point or another. But deaths were rare when compared to the rate of bizarre incidents that happened on a weekly basis and every time something became deadly and lives were lost Jo felt as if someone had sucker punched her in the stomach. That feeling hadn't changed even though her job had.

"Well so far it seems to only be affecting people that work within GD," Grace pointed out and that didn't make Jo feel any better. There were still thousands of people that were potential victims even if it was limited to GD.

"I've started to have any GD experiments that could be causing this reviewed but the scientists all came from different departments so it's difficult to pin-point one cause of the hallucinations when there doesn't seem to be any distinguishable pattern between the victims." Fargo added and Jo wondered how he was coping. He'd confided in her how much he struggled with being in charge of GD and the responsibility; she could only imagine what it me be like being in charge of a facility in which people were dying.

"This is the last thing we need," Allison exclaimed closing her eyes and rubbing her forehead with her fingertips "Not with the cleansing of the underground complex scheduled for next week."

Jo furrowed her forehead as a thought struck her. "I know this didn't happen when we originally went into the complex but you don' think that something down there is causing the hallucinations?" Jo asked them but Henry quickly shook his head.

"Even if it was the cause the complex still needs to be decontaminated as soon as possible. We only have a few weeks until the crack deepens enough to release the compound into the town's supply and rapid ageing is just one problem we don't need right now." Henry told her and Jo nodded. If the cause of the hallucinations was located in the underground complex they would need to run tests and restrict access however they couldn't. Jo could only too easily remember Zoe as she lay ageing before their eyes and the bodies they'd found down there. That couldn't be unleashed upon the town.

"I'll start examinations and an autopsy as soon as I return to GD," Allison told them and Carter wrapped an arm around her. Jo felt her heart ache for her. Allison had been extremely excited for Jenna's christening and as per usual in Eureka something came along and ruined it.

"For now let's go to the Christening. GD is all but empty today so hopefully things will be hallucination free for a few hours. Come on Ali, you can't do anything right now."Carter told her softly and Allison nodded resting her cheek on his shoulder and allowing him to escort her out of the room his hand on the small of her back.

"I have to go to, need to pick up Claudia" Fargo told them and despite the deep groves of stress etched onto his face, the pride in his confession shone through. Jo smiled at him happy that Fargo had found someone he liked. She wasn't completely bitter towards men, just Zane and his entirely inappropriate and confusing confessions.

"Should we go?" Henry asked Jo and Grace and the two women nodded accepting the door he held out for them. As Jo dug through her coat pockets trying to locate her car keys she couldn't help but pray that the rest of the day went without any disasters. After what had happened at her wedding, Allison deserved one thing to go as planned.

XOX

Zane sighed looking around the group of people gathered in front of the church for Jenna's christening. It seemed that everyone in the town had been invited and shown up which was of course probably true, the people of Eureka loved Carter and his family dearly. Zane had always been slightly envious of Carter's ability to charm an entire populous into taking him into their hearts but now he was jealous only of Carter's relationship with Jo. She obviously adored and respected him far more than she ever would him and it made the champagne taste like vinegar in his mouth.

The service had been short, shorter than expected, and it didn't escape his notice that the entire party gathered at the front of the church had seemed tense and inpatient. He'd also quickly noticed the deadly look that Zoe had sent him and the red-head that sat next to Fargo holding what seemed to be some strange sort of gun in her hands. But that had of course all faded into the background when he'd seen Jo. She was wearing a black dress and she just looked, well, _wow. _But just as she had any time she'd seen him over the past few days she did a brilliant job of looking through him like he didn't exist.

"What up my fellow Donovan?" Claudia asked him seemingly appearing from nowhere with Fargo and Zane forced his face from the sullen expression he had been wearing into a smile. She had a aqua blue stripe through her hair and Fargo was grinning at her like he'd won a Nobel prize.

"Hey Claudia, Fargo," Zane replied and he found himself studying the item that she was carrying in more detail now she was stood next to him. It was a gun but as far as he could see it was made from plastic and had some sort of tag attached to it that he couldn't quite read from where he was sitting.

As if seeing where he was looking Claudia grinned brightly at him "Pretty neat huh?" she asked him and Zane merely smiled back at her wondering what the hell it actually was that she was holding. Suddenly he got hit by a wave of nostalgia as memories of watching the original Battlestar Galactica with his mother come to the forefront of his mind.

"Is that Richard Hatch's gun from the original BSG series?" he asked her and Claudia nodded moving it closer so that he could have a better look at it. It was signed and everything. It didn't take long for Zane to guess exactly who'd given it her. Well, it was hardly going to be Carter was is?

"Doug here got it for me. Cool eh?" she asked and this time he nodded. Though it was cool, his inner nerd was all but exploding in excitement at being this close to something that had belong to a child hood hero. When he'd told Fargo to buy Claudia a present, a signed gun from a TV show hadn't been quite what he'd meant. But then again it was Fargo, and Claudia looked far more impressed with that than she'd probably of been with a bunch of red roses as per Zane's usual style, so perhaps it was an stroke of dating genius on Fargo's behalf.

"Trust me my inner five-year old is incredibly jealous," Zane replied remembering all the times he'd run around his kitchen with a cardboard cut out gun pretending to be Captain Apollo. "For you information Fargo I'd quite like William's Shatner's communicator from the original Star Trek for my birthday this year."

Fargo frowned at him and both Zane and Claudia laughed. Claudia looked around suddenly and seemed surprised. "Hey where's that butt kicking, hot brunette you're usually being bossed around by?" Claudia asked and Zane knew without a doubt as far away from him as possible. "I thought the two of you were you know, like a thing?" Claudia stated and Fargo quickly jumped in to correct her.

"No Zane and Jo are just friends. And as for Jo, she's actually just over there with Carter." Fargo pointed out. Claudia looked at him and stuck out her lower lip in thought for a moment before looking back at Zane.

"Shame, you two made a pretty hot pair. You know I could maybe have a word with her..." Claudia told him with a serious expression on her face and then burst out laughing at the horrified expression on his. "Calm bro, just kidding. If you can't make it with the hot chick whose obviously in love with you, not my problem," she told him and Fargo quickly bent over to whisper in her ear probably telling her not to encourage him in a pursuit of Jo. Fargo had made his feelings about him and Jo perfectly clear that day in his office.

Zane looked over and saw that Jo was excusing herself from talking to Carter and Allison. He saw his chance to talk to her. He looked at Fargo and Claudia and could tell they were in a world of their own. He quickly extricated himself and made his way over to Jo. She looked less than pleased to see him.

"Zane, what do you want?" she asked him and for a moment he forgot how to speak as he took in exactly how hot she looked in her dress when he was stood next to her. She raised her eyebrow and all but resorted to tapping her foot on the ground and he quickly remembered why he'd come over to talk to her.

"I have a present for you. To make up for upsetting you and asking all those personal questions the other night," he told her and handed her over the plain white envelope he'd fished out for his suit pocket. She took it for his hands but eye'd it suspiciously as she held it in her own. Rather than opening it she looked him directly in the eye.

"What is this Zane?" she asked and he felt disappointment settle in his stomach. She was treating him exactly like she used too, keeping him at a distance and looking at him with disdain in her eyes. It was like all the progress that they made, and even the relationship she'd had with the alternate him, hadn't happened and he was right back with the Jo he'd spent two years with when he'd first come to Eureka.

"Just open it," he replied and to his surprise she didn't put up any more of a fight, she simply turned her attention to opening the envelope, sliding her fingertip between the sealed flap on the back. Zane was nervous not knowing how she'd take the gift. Once she finished and pulled out the two tickets he found himself unable to stop talking. "I just wanted to say sorry and don't worry you don't have to take me with you. You can take Zoe if you want, or Carter or even Fargo though he might be busy with his new toy," he informed her in a rushed garble but she seemed to ignoring him looking down at the tickets she held in her hands.

"Tickets to Swan Lake? Zane, this is... I can't accept these. They must have cost a fortune," she told him and held them out, but he closed her fingertips over them and pushed her hands back towards her body. They had cost a fortune but Jo Lupo was worth it.

"I wanted to do something nice for you Jo and before you say it there isn't any ulterior motive in this, I'm not trying to get into your pants through ballet. I just thought you'd enjoy it and before you try and give them back again I'm not accepting them. They're a gift Jo," he told her and she looked down at her closed fingers and then back up at him a soft smile on her face though she still seemed thrown off-balance.

"Thank you Zane. I don't know what to say," she replied bringing her hands to her chest and smiling at him. Zane tried to smile back at her but when he opened his mouth to answer he found that he couldn't catch his breath to speak.

Zane tired again to drag air into his lungs but he found that he couldn't, no matter how hard he tried. He felt panic start to rise in his chest as he desperately tried to breath fighting the rising pressure in his lungs. It felt as if something was blocking his throat stopping the air reaching his lungs and it tasted like mud and dirt. He felt a slight dark tinge start to imped on the corners of his vision and he could Jo's expression turn from the gentle yet unsure smile she'd just been wearing to one of concern.

"Zane? Zane, what's wrong?" she asked him the concern evident in her voice but he still couldn't breathe even as he clutched at his throat feeling a burning sensation begin to shimmer in his chest and then explode outwards starting to consume his whole body from his toes to the tip of his hair.

Zane felt his vision begin to blur as he fell forward only partly being able to see Jo drop the tickets he'd just given her to the floor and rush forward to catch him in her arms and stop him smashing his head on the floor. He could feel himself gasping for air though not making a sound and his hands clawing at his throat but his whole being was screaming for air. He wanted to dislodge the mud and dirt that filled his throat and stopped him breathing. Vaguely through the pain he felt Jo put her hands onto his chest and feel to see if he was breathing.

"He isn't breathing. ALLISON! Zane, can you hear me? Stay with me," Jo told him but her voice sounded more like an echo travelling down a long and empty tunnel. He couldn't see her any more. His vision had been reduced to all but a black screen with tiny pinpoints of white light.

He felt another set of hands on his chest, opening his mouth and trying to force air into his lungs but he still couldn't get the air past the lump in his throat. He still couldn't breathe and he felt himself start to drift into the pain that had consumed his body, the feel of the hands on his chest and the lips of his mouth blending into nothing amidst the burning agony and the taste of dirt on his tongue.

"Zane, please hold on. Zane, please don't leave me,"

Jo's voice was so quiet that it was all but a whisper though in reality she was probably shouting. And with the sound of her voice in his ear, clutching to each word like a life raft, he finally gave in to the agonised oblivion that fought to consume him.

XOX

Jo Lupo was falling apart and Jo Lupo never fell apart.

She was sitting outside the infirmary. She couldn't stop her hands from shaking or the silent tears that were running down her face and dripping onto the stupid dress she'd spent so much money on the day before. This uncontrollable emotion and grief that she was currently being consumed by scared her, she'd never felt like this since the day she found her mother with a gun in her hand and a hole in her head. And this time no one had even died. Well not technically anyway.

"Oh Jo,"

As Grace wrapped her arms around her she felt her body begin to stop shaking, not because it wanted to but because Grace was holding her so tightly to her chest. She too was still wearing her dress from the Christening and though Jo's tears would no doubt stain the delicate silk it was weaved from she didn't even seem to notice. Jo had been sitting alone for nearly half an hour and it was only when she felt the temperature of Grace's skin that she realised she was freezing.

"He died Grace," Jo told her quietly her voice disjointed and broken through the chattering of her teeth and at that admission she felt more tears flow down her face. She hadn't really cried, not properly, since she'd come to this new reality. Instead she chose to keep her emotions under wraps unless she really couldn't keep them contained. But now she was not only crying for what had occurred that afternoon but for everything that had happened since they'd gone back in time.

"He's okay now Jo, that's what matters." Grace reassured her. Jo tried to nod but even that thought didn't help. She knew that in coming here the Zane she had loved had died but there had still been a Zane even if he had been different. But this afternoon Zane had died and she nearly lost him completely and forever. And that thought scared the hell out of her.

"I don't know what I'd do if he'd died Grace. I can't lose him again," Jo told her. Grace tightened her grip as if hoping to help keep her together not that Jo thought she had any chance of doing that. It seemed that the age old saying that keeping emotions bottled up was unhealthy was true especially when they all came spiralling out of the bottle in reaction to one event.

"Jo, Zane didn't die and he's going to be awake soon. You didn't lose him so stop thinking like that. Everything is going to be okay." Grace comforted her, running a soothing hand down the length of her hair and all but cradling her to her chest like a mother even though Grace was hardly much older than Jo was.

Things hadn't been like this after her mom had died, there hadn't been anyone to comfort her. Her dad simply stopped speaking, her brothers reacted from locking themselves away to drinking copiously and her grandparents were all dead. Jo had been alone. Though Jo wasn't used to having someone there when she broke apart she knew she couldn't have stopped herself for completely disintegrating this time without Grace.

"He died in my arms Grace and I know Allison saved him but he still died right there and I couldn't help him. And the last thing I did was be horrible to him and try and throw a gift back in his face. Grace I can't lose this Zane, I can't be alone again." Jo confided and couldn't help but think of how similar it was to her mother. Jo and her mom had been perhaps more best friends than mother and daughter at times but Jo hadn't really known how unhappy and ill she'd been, hadn't helped her and her punishment was to hold her mother's hand as she bled to death. Just like Zane, her mother had died in her arms and she'd been powerless to stop it.

Grace held her face away from her chest cupping Jo's cheeks in her palms and Jo was surprised to see that even without the confines of Grace's arms her body had stopped shaking "Tell him Jo. Be honest with him. This is Eureka and anything can happen. Could you bear for today to happen again without Zane knowing the truth, knowing quite how much you care about him?" Grace asked her and Jo nodded.

Feeling the life slip away from and seeing the hopeful smile on his face as he'd given her the present, and of course his words the night before, had compounded in her head exactly how much this Zane had changed. He wasn't the same person as the man she loved but the things that had made her love him were still there. And though he wasn't the Zane she'd known, he was still Zane and she knew she cared about him, cared about this Zane not just the one she'd known. Because if she didn't she would have broken down like this when she'd first realised how he'd changed, not when this Zane had nearly been taken away from her. Deep down it seemed that she known he was the same person, known that she hadn't lost Zane as a whole. She had to tell him the truth. She owed him that much and not only the truth about her past but the truth that in the last few weeks she'd fallen in love with Zane Donovan all over again.

"No. I can't imagine losing him with Zane thinking I still hated him, that I was still the same Jo who'd never given him a chance. Henry told you the truth and I should have done the same with Zane. He deserves that much and I care too much to keep lying to him," Jo replied and Grace smiled at her wiping away the tears from her cheeks with the corner of her dress sleeve. "Remind me to get you a new dress," Jo added and Grace laughed hugging her.

"Don't worry about that, I have a husband remember?" Grace told her with a grin and despite the situation Jo found herself smiling. The smile quickly disappeared from her face when she looked up to see Allison standing above the two of them. Her face was heavily lined and exhausted but even so she was smiling.

"Zane is awake if you want to go and see him Jo," Allison told her but Jo was already all but out of her seat before Allison had finished her sentence. She just wanted to see Zane to prove to herself that he was okay. She knew he was okay because of Allison and Grace but she wouldn't stop worrying until she saw him with her own eyes.

Zane was propped up against what seemed like a backdrop of every single pillow that was in the infirmity and though his face was deathly pale with dark bruises underneath his eyes he grinned at her when he saw her approach and Jo hoped that her tears and earlier break down weren't too obvious on her face.

"Ahh can't keep away from me huh?" Zane asked her and she rolled her eyes as she took her seat at his bedside. Her hands were shaking and she debated locking her fingers together to stop them. Zane followed her eye line to her shaking hands. Instead of making a smart ass comment as Jo was used to he merely slid his own hand across the bed and turned in palm up so Jo could take her hand in his. His skin was surprisingly warm compared to how ice cold he'd been last time she'd held his.

She smiled at him and he looked down at their interlocked hands. He turned his eyes upwards to her face and smiled back. "Trust me Zane even you, as irresistible as you think you are, can't rock the death warmed up look," she informed him and his shrugged as best as he possibly could against the pillows.

"Just so you know dying takes a lot out of a boy," he replied and she laughed knowing only Zane would treat his own death with humour. Watching him joke put her at ease and assured her that he'd be fine and she finally found that she could relax. Her hands had stopped shaking but she hadn't let go of Zane's hand or him hers. "Allison gave me a clean bill of health. Though no one has any idea how or why I died from suffocation in the middle of a church. But if I'm stuck in here I can get practising for the big bowling tournament."

Jo had known underneath her terror that Zane had been affected by a hallucination because what else could explain what happened especially when only that morning a woman had drowned though there hadn't been any water near her. "Allison told me they had to cut a hole into your chest" Jo stated and Zane reached across his chest with his free hand to rest gently on where she guessed was the wound that had been left from the tube, at first the hollow plastic shell of a biro, that had pumped air straight into his chest.

"Yeah she told me. Even though there wasn't anything blocking my throat my wind pipe had closed up. That's why I couldn't breathe properly," Zane explained "But it felt like I was choking. It really did Jo, I could even taste the dirt in my mouth." he added and Jo could believe it. No water had been found in the woman's lungs but every sign pointed to drowning.

"What are you most afraid of Zane?" she asked him knowing that her Zane had been scared of nothing more serious than spiders and arachnophobia didn't cause someone to choke to death.

"Being buried alive" Zane admitted and he turned away from her, gazing across the infirmary with a distant look in his eyes as if dredging up a long forgotten memory. "When I was kid there was an old well that had been boarded up but when I walked across it it collapsed. I remember waiting down there covered in dirt and broken wood barely being able to breathe until my mom found me. I honestly thought I was going to die," he admitted to her and Jo nodded squeezing his hand tightly. That would explain the hallucination only now she knew exactly what would happen if Zane was struck again by a hallucination and that scared her more than any of her own phobias.

"Zane, about the tickets.." she paused for a moment but he cut her off before she had a chance to finish her sentence, reaching across the bed to put his finger against her lips and shushing her.

"Jo I don't care how many times I died, I'm still not taking the tickets back," he informed her but Jo smiled and shook her head fishing the tickets out from her pocket. They were crumpled from where she quickly picked them up before following Zane and Allison to GD so she smoothed then out with her fingers.

"No I wasn't going to give them back, have you seen how good these seats are? No I was wondering if you wanted to come with me, you know, like my date," Jo asked him quickly and she found she couldn't look at him. The last thing that she wanted was for him to laugh in her face and tell her that he'd only been drunk and that it was just a gift between friends. It wouldn't have been the first time Jo had read a person or a relationship completely wrong.

"Aww Jo, you sure know how to make a boy blush. Of course I'll be your date but you better take me somewhere nice to eat and no funny business," he warned her and she turned to face him and let out a relieved breath when she realised he was grinning at her. "Though of course as long as you're a good girl I may consider extras," he added and she shook her head at him. Old habits die hard.

"I think I'll implement a hands where I can see them at all times rule and if you break I may just have to pull out the handcuffs." He laughed before suddenly turning serious and giving her hand a squeeze. Jo felt her face melt into a frown at the sudden change of mood between them and wondered if he was now going to break the only friends bombshell to her.

"I'm sorry for worrying you Jo and making you cry. Seeing you upset, I don't like that especially when I'm the cause," he said quietly and Jo felt her frown deepen. He'd been unconscious so how could he have known that she'd been crying? As if seeing her chain of thought he quickly answered her question "The mascara down the cheeks kinda gives it away Jo," he explained and she rubbed at her face seeing the black now coating her hand. She'd been so eager to check on him she hadn't even looked at the state of her face.

"It's okay Zane. It's not like you died on purpose is it?" she asked him with a smile hoping to lighten the mood but his face remain serious and the grip on her hand firm.

"Jo I nearly died, well I did. And I never got to tell you how I feel. You know you're a right pain in the ass sometimes and you have more mood swings than a teenage girl sometimes, at least towards me, but I can't help but care about you. I could hear you right there next to me right up to the end and all I wanted to do was tell you how much you mean to me before I died. You asked me not to leave you alone and I want to promise that as long as I'm here you won't be, you're special to me Jo and the last thing I want to do is lose you," he said. Jo felt like she was about to start crying again. She told her hallucination Zane that he'd never been that romantic but here he was baring his soul to her. And all she wanted to do was break down again.

But instead of crying Jo leant across the bed, brushed the hair away from his face, slipped her hand from his grasp and cupped his face in her black smeared palms and kissed him. He kissed her back straight away and though it wasn't as aggressive as the kiss in the sheriff's office had been, just like then it felt familiar, like a kiss they'd shared a thousand times before. It even though it made her sound like a walking cliché it felt like home.

She pulled her face away from him though still close enough to his that their noses were almost touching her hands still resting on his face. He smiled up at her and placed his hand atop of the one that was touching his left cheek "Now that Jo Jo I liked, that I liked a lot."

Jo was about to respond when a shocked intake of breath cut through the air. Jo pulled away from Zane and turned to see Zoe watching them. In her hands she clutched a bag in which Jo could just about identify her sweat pants and her favourite sweatshirt.

"Zoe..." Jo started but she had no idea what to say. The last person she'd expected to find in the infirmary had been Zoe though if Jo was honest she hadn't even thought about the public arena she'd had chosen to show Zane her feelings. She had just wanted to know how she felt.

Zoe had the shell-shocked look on her face of someone who just been betrayed by a friend they considered family which in many ways she was "Dad said you were here, I thought you'd want some clean clothes. I had no idea that you'd be..." Zoe didn't finished and took a step backwards when Jo stood up and moved towards her.

"Zoe I can explain," Jo told her suddenly gripped with an icy fear in her chest. She hadn't wanted to lose Zane but she didn't want to lose Zoe either. What had she done?

"No you can't," Zoe told her dropping the bag of clothes on the floor and turning her back on the two of them and walking straight out of the infirmary without even a single glance back at Jo and Zane.

Jo glanced at Zane feeling as if her heart had begun to pump ice water around her veins. She loved Zoe, she'd never wanted to hurt Zoe but she had. She had to make Zoe understand, tell her about what had happened between her and the other Zane. She looked at this Zane who merely nodded at her and glanced towards the door to which Jo was already running desperate to salvage a friendship that meant more to her than anything.

Just like Zoe this time Jo didn't look back.

XOX

"Get out of MY house!" Zoe screamed in her face but Jo stood her ground. She wasn't leaving till Zoe knew the truth. She wasn't going to stand by and loose her little sister without putting up a fight. Jo had had enough of losing people to last a life time.

"Zoe I'm not going anywhere until we talk, until you let me explain." Jo informed her and Zoe let an outraged angry laugh at Jo's words. They were back at the Carter house. S.A.R.A.H. and Carter stood the sidelines careful not to get into the path of the two warring females that had just burst into his home. After all he'd been expecting this as soon as he'd seen how Zane had started to look at Jo.

"What's there to explain? That you lied to me? That you listened to me tell you about how much I liked Zane and how upset I was and then went off and kissed him? Explain how you stabbed me in the back when you're supposed to be my friend?" Zoe demanded and Jo had to look away. Everything she was accusing her of was true and that was the most painful aspect of all of this. Jo had been a terrible person.

"Please listen Zoe. Things aren't that simple so please let me explain," Jo begged her but Zoe ignored her muttering angrily to herself pacing back and forth across the living room with her firsts balled angrily at her sides. Even when she'd been dumped by Zane Zoe hadn't been this mad and Jo wasn't sure if she could make this right even if she did explain.

"I don't want to listen to you Jo. You're worse than Zane. I never want to see you again so please just GO AWAY!" Zoe shouted again and Jo recoiled at the pure hatred that laced her words. This time Carter stepped forward and fixed his daughter with a careful gaze careful not to anger her more.

"Zoe please, let Jo explain. Trust me, you need to listen to her. In fact we should have all told you a long time ago so please just let Jo talk," Carter asked her and at her father's words Zoe seemed to deflate a little. Jo could have asked Carter to explain but that was the coward's way out and Jo was anything but a coward. This was her mess and she had to sort it out herself.

"Fine. So go on Jo, tell me what made you do this to me?" Zoe asked, throwing herself down onto the sofa crossing her and staring at Jo waiting for her answers. Jo took a deep breath and sat down opposite her next to Carter and began.

"On Founder's Day something happened that sent me, your dad, Fargo, Allison and Henry back to 1947. We managed to get home but when we did everything had changed. Fargo was in charge of GD instead of Allison who was now the chief medical officer, Henry was married to Grace and I was head of security for GD instead of being the deputy Sheriff like I was with your dad before Andy. We couldn't go back to our own time line or could we go back to 1947 so we just had to make the most of the new reality that we found ourselves in," Jo started but Zoe lifted up a hand to silence her mid way through her story.

"So wait you expect me to believe you're from an alternate reality?" she looked back and forth between Jo and her father both of whom nodded and she frowned. "So you're not my father? And you're not my Jo," she asked them and Carter quickly moved to sit next to his daughter.

"Not exactly. I'm still your father, I'm still Jack Carter and you're still my Zoe. I may be a little different but your still my daughter," he assured her but she looked unconvinced just like Grace had been when she first been told about what was happening by Henry. Just like Jo had been when she'd been trying to connect this Zane with the one she had known.

"But you're not. You don't have memories of me growing up in this reality, your memories are of another version of me. And you're not the people I knew, that I loved. You're imposters" she accused and Jo could see how much pain her words were causing Carter. But how else was Zoe supposed to react to this? It wasn't exactly a situation that a person was prepared for was it?

"No Zoe, we're not. Many of our memories over-lap. We're the same people, you're still my daughter Zoe and I'm still you're father not an imposter. No matter what memories we share it doesn't change that or how much I love you. We're the same people." Zoe thought for a long moment before nodding slightly.

"Okay, not that I'm saying I'm completely down with that, you're the same people. So why if you're the same people did Jo have her tongue down my ex-boyfriend's throat two days after we broke up when she supposed to be my friend and 'love' me?" Zoe asked them and Jo sighed wringing her hands together.

"Things for you and your dad never really changed. Trust me on that. Out of all of us your dad is all but exactly the same person he was before. But for me? Everything had changed. Before we went back to the past I worked with your dad as his deputy and I wasn't the woman that everyone was scared off. I didn't hate Zane, in fact just before we went to the past he asked me to marry him," Jo told her and she could tell that for a moment Zoe was lost for words trying to process everything that Jo had just told her.

Zoe's screwed her forehead up into a confused mess of lines and ran a hand through her short hair before looking back up at Jo, "So you and Zane were together?" she asked and Jo nodded.

"We'd been dating for two years in that reality. When we came here I tried to accept his proposal and that was how I knew, knew that everything between us was different. He wasn't my Zane and when you told me you liked him it broke my heart Zoe but I couldn't even be mad at you because I know you'd never purposely hurt me. As far as you were concerned Zane and I hated each other and we did in this reality till I replaced that Jo. Zoe, I loved Zane and I still do. I love my Zane but I love this Zane too and the last thing I wanted to do was hurt you. Zoe it was breaking my heart because I love you so much but I couldn't stop loving Zane as much as I wanted to." Jo told her in a rush trying to get Zoe to understand. She needed her to understand that Jo loved her so much and that she hated herself for causing Zoe any pain but she couldn't turn off her feelings for Zane especially when he reciprocated them.

"Does Zane love you? I mean this Zane?" Zoe asked her and Jo looked down. Jo didn't know how to answer her, because even she didn't know exactly how much Zane cared for her past a lot, but Zoe took her silence as an answer "You should have told me. Both of you should have told me,"

Carter nodded took over from Jo. "I know but we had no idea what had happened at first and then when we knew we couldn't change it we decided not to tell anyone. What was the point of causing arguments like this if we didn't need too? We just wanted to live this new life as best as we could Zoe."

Zoe shook her head and laughed slightly thought it was filled with bitterness and disbelief "You should have told me, I'm your daughter." She turned and fixed her gaze on Jo. "And you, you're one of my best friends. You just sat there, giving me advice on Zane when all the time you were in love with him and in pain without even thinking of telling me the truth. How do you think I feel about myself right now Jo? I broke the heart of someone I love without even knowing it and that makes me hate myself for allowing that to happen." Zoe told her standing up and grabbing her bag and Jo stood as well moving closer to Zoe though this time she didn't back away.

"Zoe please, I love you. Please don't hate me for this," Jo asked her all but begging again. Zoe stared at her directly in the eye and Jo could see tears in Zoe's eyes mixed with the pain and betrayal that swirled there.

"Dad, I understand, I get it. You didn't tell me to protect me and I can understand that. If I'm honest I'd rather never had to know so I forgive you dad but I can't forgive you Jo. I can forgive you kissing Zane, I understand that but I can't forgive you lying to me and letting me hurt you like I did. I love you and I broke your heart and that kills me but even after all that we talked about you couldn't trust me with the truth. You just kept letting me hurt you. I broke your heart and you broke mine, you made me hate myself for hurting you and I can't forgive you for that, I can't forgive you for lying and for letting me do that you. I hate you for what you did but trust me I hate myself more for what I did to you," she told her and Jo felt her heart once more become gripped in fear's icy grasp. She was losing Zoe and she had no idea how to stop it.

Tears fell down Zoe's face and grabbed her coat and bag causing Carter to frown. "Zoe where are you going?" he asked and she shrugged as tears dripped from her eyes and ran down her lips.

"To Pilar's. I need time to think this through" she explained and Carter nodded though Jo could tell that the last thing he wanted to do was to let Zoe go at that exact moment in time. Everything was such a mess and it was all Jo's fault.

As Zoe walked past her Jo grabbed her arm and stopped her in her tracks "When you've had a chance to think about this please can we talk?" Jo asked her but Zoe firmly shook her head and wrenched her arm from Jo's grip swiftly and somewhat violently.

"I have nothing more to say to you Jo. Ever." And with that final statement and dagger blow to Jo's heart she turned away from the two of them and walked out of the door. Jo felt more tears gather in her eyes as if the only reaction her body could conjure was to cry, as if to make up for years of refusing to allow herself to properly express her emotion and cry.

Carter came to stand next to her wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Jo she's just mad and she has a point. We should have told her but when she's calmed down we can talk about this again. Zoe loves you too much Jo to just cut you out of her life like that. Trust me, just give her time to calm down and think everything through." Carter told her and Jo nodded but shrugged away his arm.

"I'm sorry Carter but I need to be alone," she told him and like Zoe she grabbed her bed and heading straight out of the door leaving Carter stood alone in the middle of the quiet battlefield.

XOX

Jo was planning to go to her office after several hours of firing angry shots into the dark at the shooting range but instead she found herself standing next to Zane's bed watching him sleep. He looked so peaceful when he slept and she couldn't bring herself to wake him even though she knew the ice-cream she was cradling in her arms was slowly starting to melt within the tub. Colour had started to return to his cheeks so his face no longer gave away any clue to what had happened to him earlier that day.

As if sensing her presence Zane slowly opened his eyes and turned to face her, his eyes sleepily and slightly confused. "Hey what are you doing here this late?" he asked and she held up the tub of ice-cream that she was holding in her arms to show him.

"I thought you might like ice-cream. I brought rocky road, you're favourite," she explained but just like the other Zane this Zane had seemingly developed a keen ability of being able to see right through her at times.

Zane pushed back the covers on one side of the bed and shifted over so that Jo could lie down next to him "Jo come here" he asked her and she put the tub down on the cabinet and sat next to him allowing him to wrap her in her arms, her head resting on his chest and his chin resting on the top of her head. It was so similar to when he'd been confirmed to the infirmary before but it was a comforting familiarity "I take it that things with Zoe didn't end well?" he asked her and she shook her head as best as she could with it pressed against his chest.

"She hates me," Jo told him and he rested a hand on top of her hair brushing his thumb across the base of her skull and Jo squeezed her eyes shut hating what she had to do now. "And she should do. Because I lied to her, just like I lied to you," Jo admitted knowing that now Zoe knew she couldn't keep the truth from Zane but perhaps even more so that she shouldn't keep the truth from the people she loved. It wasn't fair on them.

"Jo what are you talking about?" Zane asked her and Jo took a deep breath waiting for him to end up just as mad at her as Zoe had been. After all she lied directly to his face over and over again pushing him away if he ever got slightly close to the truth.

"About why I had your grandmother's ring. You asked me what we we're to each other and I lied to you Zane. I should have told you the truth and I'm so sorry," she told him and was silent for a moment before talking.

"Jo I know. You're from a different reality or a parallel universe as stupid as that sounds to say out loud and where ever you came from you and the version of me there were in love, in love enough for that me to ask you to marry me and to give you my grandmother's ring that I'd promised not to give away till I met the perfect woman," he told her and Jo was gob smacked. Out of everything that she'd been expecting for him to say that he already knew was not the last thing she'd been expecting, she hadn't even considered it.

"How did you know?" she asked pulling away from his chest so that she could sit up and see his face as he answered.

"I found a picture of the two of you together the night I looked after you when you were drunk" he explained and Jo cursed the silly little photo-booth photo she'd always carried around in her purse but had to take out so that no one here had accidentally seen it and started to ask questions. That had worked well then "But in all fairness from the moment you accepted a marriage proposal I hadn't even made, alarm bells started ringing Jo."

Jo had no idea how to feel about this. She been expecting him to be as mad as Zoe had been. After all she lied to him as well. "Why didn't you tell me you knew?" she asked him. He sighed taking her hand in his and drawing a pattern on the back of it with a single finger tip.

"I wanted you to tell me yourself because you trusted me. When you were drunk you told me not to leave you and from that moment, and from when we kissed if I'm honest or perhaps even when you dumped me, I knew that I wanted you to be my friend, to trust me. I get that I'm not him, that I'm not the wonderful version of me that you fell for but I already started to fall for you. I wanted your trust Jo and if I started demanded answers and shoving that photo under your nose you'd have just pulled away from me further. I'd have had the truth from your lips but I wouldn't have had you and I didn't want that," he confessed and Jo had to see that he had a point.

That night had been the start of her changing feelings toward this Zane and if he'd thrown what he'd found out into her face she would have told him the truth but she would have never become his friend and spent all that time with. That night had been when she'd started to like this Zane for who he was here, not just being a reminder of the Zane she'd known and that would never have happened if she resurrected all of her walls around him.

"Zane I wanted to tell you the truth but the more time I spent with you the more the lines between this reality and the originally one began to blur. It was almost as if the change, and the past, had happened. You're still Zane Donovan no matter what reality we're in and the reasons why I love you haven't changed. You're the same person Zane and everything I loved about you before we changed our future is what I love about you now. I didn't want to tell you about the difference version of you because I came to see that essentially you're exactly the same person and I hadn't lost the man I loved." She hoped he'd at least understand why she'd acted so strange with him and how confusing she had found her feelings for him.

"I have to admit when I first saw the picture I was jealous of myself. I was obviously so much better where you came from because I won you over straight away. But then again I came to see that you as a person aren't that much different to the Jo I first met. Sure she was a hard ass who liked to threaten me and throw me in jail whether whatever happened had been my fault or not but who you are now, I could see that person under her hard ass exterior. I figured if you were the same Jo deep down despite seeming so different that maybe I was the same person as that Zane and maybe I could be the guy who made you happy, who was worth you." Jo wiped away a tear from the corner of her eye though not because she was upset for once but because she was just happy that he wasn't mad and demanding that she get out of his sight like Zoe had.

"Zane I'm so sorry about lying to you," she told him and he smiled at her cupping her face in his hand. "Everyone told me to trust you and to tell you, that you were the same person I loved I guess I was just too blind to see what was in front of me," she admitted and he laughed.

"What's that? The brilliant Jo Lupo admitting that she was wrong about something?" he asked her. She stuck her tongue out at him despite how childish it made her look.

"If you hadn't died this afternoon I'd punch you in the arm right now," she informed him with a smile and then paused. "And Zane for your information you are good enough for me. Just as you are," she told him thinking back to what he'd just told her.

"And don't worry Jo Jo, I always thought you were hot even when you were locking me up in jail. Actually especially when you were locking me up in jail," he told her laughing and she couldn't help but roll her eyes at him in substitute for being able to hit him. "But Jo I always wanted you and now? Now I want more than just you, I want be to with you. Though you can always handcuff me if the mood takes you," he told her and she nodded. Zane patted the space by the side of him and Jo lay down and curled into his arm. She closed her eyes and felt him trace his fingertips up and down her arm.

Just as she was falling asleep she felt him brush the hair away from her ear and plant a kiss on the skin of her neck and whisper into her ear, "I love you Josefina Jupo" and before she could wrench her eyes open and tell him that she wasn't asleep and that she heard him a gun shot rang through the air.

Jo's whole body suddenly became alert and she all but jumped out of Zane's arms and out of the bed. Another gun shot rang out and she ran towards the sound wishing she had her gun with her. And even though she was sure he shouldn't be out of bed Zane followed her. Just outside the medical bay she saw one of the night security guards with her gun in her hand and a feverish, horrified expression on her face.

"Emma what's wrong?" Jo asked her but Emma merely looked behind Jo, her eyes widening with fear while waving her gun in the air wildly. Jo took a step back careful to put distance between her and the woman who was most likely the newest victim of the fear hallucination.

"There's everywhere! They've come to get me! Help me!" Emma cried out in fear and Jo reached out a hand to her across the distance between them. Her voice was calm and steady even though she felt anything but calm.

"There's nothing here Emma. You're safe, it's just a hallucination. Please give the gun to me, I can protect you," Jo assured her but Emma shook her head clutching at the gun even more firmly even though tears pooled in her eyes and her hands began to shake even more erratically with every moment that passed.

"No! They're here, can't you see them? They're here to KILL ME!" Emma screamed obviously terrified and Jo dived as she began to let off round from her gun randomly into the air after pushing Zane to the ground. She threw the gun away and as soon as it was gone Emma curled up into the foetal position and began to sob hysterically.

Jo knelt on the floor breathing heavily and looking around at the bullets dug into the wall. Zane was quickly kneeling next to her and Jo rested her hand on his chest. When she pulled it away she saw that it was lightly covered in blood and looked up at Zane "Zane you're bleeding. I must have ripped your stitches open when I pushed you over" she told him but she quickly knew that something else was wrong from the ghost white colour of his face and the fact that he was already tapping in what she knew was the four digit medical emergency code into his PDA to alert all available staff at GD and those at home.

"No Jo" he told her pressing a hand to her chest causing her to look down as see the rapidly spreading blood pool on her clothes and on the surrounding floor caused my three holes she could see in her shirt, "You've been shot."


End file.
